Reflection is such an eye candy. If used correctly it will make a design looks sizzling. Reflection is also a great way to anchor an object so it doesn’t look floating. Creating a reflection is relatively easy especially for a flat object, where it sits flat on the ground. You duplicate an image, flip it vertically (did you know you can create a shortcut key for this?), do some gradient masking and you’re all set. Now what about an object with depth? It’s the same principle with some extra steps.

Let’s look at how this is done, shall we?

1. First, download the material from here. You can chose to use your own image of course
2. Put it in a layer and name it “Shiftr Logo”
3. Duplicate the layer and name it “Reflection”
4. Move the layer down below the layer “Shiftr Logo”
5. Flip the image vertically and move it so the edge of the letter “R” almost touches the “R” of the logo.

It should look like this more or less:

Here is the essential. The key is to locate the closest edge to the ground. Make a mental note where the spot is and imagine you slice the image into 2.

01. With the layer “Reflection” active, select the left side of the image with a marquee tool.

02. Hit Ctrl+T (or +T) for transform, Right Click and select Skew!!.
03. You see the bounding box, move your mouse over the middle left anchor point. You notice your arrow changes to a small double sided arrow.

04. Click and drag it up until it aligns nicely with the Shiftr logo. And nevermind the weirdness.

05. Repeat the same steps for the other side

06. As I said before, nevermind the weirdness. Now, with the layer “Shiftr logo” is still selected, click on the “Add Layer Mask” on your Layer window as illustrated below. You’ll notice a Layer Mask appears next to the layer’s thumbnail.

07. You’ll notice the 2 color boxes on your Tools Panel will switch to Black and White (if you have a color(s) previously). In the world of masking, black will hide an image and white will show back an image that has been masked out (hidden). That’s the concept and we will be painting on the Layer Mask to hide some of the weirdness that is happening after we skewed the image.

08. Hit G on your keyboard for the Brush. Make sure the main color is set to black (to hide). Make sure you choose a softer brush and not a sharp one.

09. Start masking out the image until you get the result you want. If this is your first time dealing with the layer mask, it needs some getting used to.  But the key here is understanding what the 2 colors can do for you: black hides and white reveals.  Hitting “X” will switch the main and secondary colors back and forth and that is super handy. Also the bigger your brush, the softer the edge will be so this is crucial in getting a better result.

Next time, I’ll show you how to make the reflection better with a simple lighting trick. And perhaps a more complicated object to play around with.
I hope this helps, please email me if you have any questions.