Reflection shadow below a product makes an impression as if the product was shot on a reflective surface, such as a glass mirror. You can enhance the impression of quality in your images with mirror shadows created in Photoshop. This simple yet impressive image editing technique can make your e-commerce store look way more impressive which can lead you to a higher sales graph. Many e-stores around the world are using this technique and are benefiting from it.
With the global growth of the e-commerce industry, the demand for image editing services is also growing at a fast pace. For all entrepreneurs who want to expand their business through online selling, displaying products in an effective manner is essential. And the reason for that is very simple, eye-catching product images can impress target audience easily and thus both the revenue and the ranking of the business enhance. Striking images can contribute a lot to the appearance of an e-store and images with reflection shadow or mirror effect can make sure you have such images.
What You Need for it?
1. Adobe Photoshop
2. Product image
3. And knowledge about image editing, which you will get from this post
What all you will learn today?
1. Creating path with Pen Tool in Adobe Photoshop
2. Image Masking
3. Using Brush Tool
4. Creating Reflection Shadow
Step 1
Open the image to be edited in Adobe Photoshop and select the Pen Tool. Now create a path from the path palette. When creating an outline around an object, it’s better to outline 1 pixel inside.
Step 2
Select the entire object by holding down “Ctrl” and clicking along the path. In case you want the edges of the selected object to be smooth, apply 0.5 feather after pressing “Shift+F6”.
Step 3
Usually, such reflection is made on the bottom of the object. For this, you have to expand canvas size from top to bottom. You can do this by following Menu>Image>Canvas Size. You have to make sure that the height and width of the canvas remain equal. To do this, you need to enter the width value in the height value section and press enter.
Step 4
Now create 2 duplicate layers by pressing “Ctrl+J” twice from the background layer.
Step 5
Then you have to flip the object vertically. First press “Ctrl+T” and bring the image to transform mode. Then right click on the object and press vertical flip.
Step 6
Drag the image while making sure that the bottom edge of the object is properly leveled.
Step 7
The next step is applying mask on the bottom layer. Then follow Tool>Sub Menu>Color. From Color you have to select top fill color black.
Step 8
On the bottom layer, apply gradient mask for fading out the reflective image. Apply the mask gradually from top to bottom.
Step 9
To make the reflection shadow look natural, apply Gaussian Blur effect on the bottom layer. Here, you will have to set the radius as per the image quality. Ideally, 2 pixels is good for average quality images.
Step 10
Along with reflection shadow, you also need a hard shadow for a complete look. For this, you need creating a new path with the Pen Tool on a new layer.
Step 11
Fill black color in the selected area in the new layer. You can do it simply by pressing “Alt+Backspace”.
Step 12
To give a motion effect to the image, select Filter>Blur>Motion from the menu bar.
Step 13
Go to the menu bar again and select Gaussian blur from Filter and apply radius to provide a natural look. Afterward, click mask icon to mask the shadow layer.
Step 14
Now select the Brush Tool from the Tool Bar and take color black while setting the opacity somewhere between 45% to 60 %. After that, start erasing the extra shadow.
Step 15
Bring down the opacity level of the hard shadow to 50-60%. If you want a soft shadow, you need to create it on a new law layer. Select brush tool with opacity 30% and apply shadow.
Step 16
Now start erasing the extra shadow with Erase Tool and keep opacity 30-40%. And finally, your image is ready to be used.
You can see creating reflection shadows or mirror effect is not a difficult task. However, if you have to apply such effects on product images which are to be used for commercial purposes and have to be displayed on various online platforms, you certainly need professional expertise. In such a situation, you can contact an esteemed company providing world-level image editing services like clipping path and mirror effect. But before hiring the company, make sure it’s worth outsourcing your project. Read a couple of reviews about the company and view its previous work in the portfolio. Besides, you can ask the company to provide you free samples. Make your selection wisely.