How do you get Reflections to look good?

Hey,

Reflections is a big thing, and I see it popular on some places... But the majority of the time, it looks really bad. Anyone have some secrets on how to make reflections actually look attractive? Thanks!

 

Reflections seem to be mainly used for text, in Web 2.0 designs.

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First, create a line of text in Photoshop.

Duplicate the layer (ctrl-J or cmd-J on a Mac).

Rasterize the text layer (under the Layers menu).

Under the Transform menu (ctrl-T), rotate this rasterized layer 180 degrees, then line it up directly under the first type layer.

Create a layer mask for the rasterized layer (select "Reveal All"), and with Black as your foreground color, select the gradient tool, making sure that the "foreground to transparent" setting is selected. (If you know the reflection is always gonna be on a white background, you can use Foreground to Background, making sure the background color is white)

Use the gradient tool, bottom to top, on the rasterized layer, making sure the mask (rectangle on the right) is selected on that layer in the Layers palette.

Finally, I usually drop the opacity down 20% or so for that layer, depending on the color of the type.

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Hope this helps, good luck!!

 

http://cow.neondragon.net/stuff/reflection/