Before&After đ â BAmagazine.com Extra 07.21.09 U X What makes a shiny surface shine? What causes a surface to appear shiny? It’s that it reflects light! A shiny surface is a mirror Here’s how to make your tabletop gleam in Photoshop 15% A matte surface has only a shadow 5% The fainter the opacity, the less shiny the surface A shiny surface has a reflection, too Transparent Dark ® How to design cool stuff Light Photoshop We’re about to make an artificial, 3-D reflection, which looks correct only on objects viewed at table level or round ones like this stone, which can be fudged (1) If your image already has a background, the first step is to select and delete it, then name its layer Reflection (2) Duplicate the layer (Layer>Duplicate Layer), and name the new layer Object (3) Go to Image>Canvas Size, double the current height, then click the top anchor arrow as shown (4) Add a new layer below the Reflection layer and name it Background; fill with white (this can change later) (5) Select the Reflection layer, flip the image vertically (Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical), and move it down, leaving some underlap as shown Set its opacity to about 50% (6) Make a new Shadow layer Draw an ellipse beneath the stone, fill with black, then deselect Blur the selection (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur) until you get a dark-to-light gradient blend, set it to Multiply mode, and you’re done Make Get more on making reflections, including easy flat ones and workarounds, in Issue 37 Extra 07.21.09