Object Reflection in Photoshop

Overview:

I have been asked many times how graphic designers achieve such realistic reflection of objects in Photoshop. Well, the idea is pretty simple and involves using the original object of our interest and applying gradient mask. The effects are pretty good. Furthermore, this technique can be freely used anywhere we would like to add a slick looking reflection to our design.

We will use a photo of iPad 2 in this tutorial. To download it click here .




1) Start with creating a new document and set its size to 800px x 600px

2) Place the image on the canvas. Go to File > Place and select the picture



3) When you choose Place, you can notice two crossing lines over the photo, so move the image in the position where you want it to be and hit Enter. This will convert the photo, we just placed, into a Smart Object

Tip: The good thing about working with Smart Objects is that when you scale it down and up, the image remains crisp and sharp in opposite to "normal" object pasted on canvas

4) Press Ctrl + J to duplicate the layer

 

5) From the top menu click Edit > Free Transform (or hit CTRL + T). Right click on the iPad and choose Rotate 180°

6) Move the second iPad under the first one (see image below)

7) Next step is to create the gradient reflection effect we are interested about. We will use a layer mask, so click Add layer mask button which is available in the Layers window at the bottom (see image below)



8) Select Gradient Tool from the tools menu on the left bar

9) Now it is a time to apply the gradient, so draw a vertical line from top to bottom (see image below)

Tip: Try to experiment with the power of the Gradient Tool by drawing different lines in order to understand how this tool actually works



10) You can notice the Gradient Tool gradually removes a part of the second iPad leaving a smooth reflection. Thanks for following this tutorial!

Author: mat