Reflection Tutorial

Submitted by: Jo Ann Karaffa

I find that I like to fill my text with the background that I will be using on a page thus creating a nice effect. I also found that even tho I love the effect of drop shadows, there was something not quite right. So after doing some experimenting I came up with the Reflection Technique that looks really nice. And there are several variations to do with it, making it versatile.

Step 1
Choose a design or background that you would like to use and open it to PSP. Next open a new file with the background white, width 350 and height 150 and 16 million colors. Make sure the foreground color on your color palette is white. Background is not important. Now choose a text. In my example, I am using Baby Face, bold/italic, size 48. I have not tried this on a wide text, but it should look alright. Center the text in the window. Next go to Selections/Modify/Feather and change the setting to 40 and hit OK. It should look like the following figure.

Step 2
Go to the fill tool, click on it. Match Mode should be RGB, Tolerance 200, and Fill Style set to Pattern. Click on options, then current pattern and highlight the name of the background file you have open. It should show up in the window in the settings window.

Fill the area within the blinking, broken lines and it should fill with the background you have chosen.

Step 3

Next, after making sure your foreground color is white, go to Image/Special Effects/Hot Wax Coating, and click. Now, deselect the text by choosing the text tool and then clicking the right button. Click the left button and choosing the exact same text you started out with, position it so that it is a little above and to the left of the first text you did.

There is no right spot to put that top text. As a matter of fact, depending on the look you want, you can experiment to decide exactly how far from the reflection you want to be! Now fill the new text using the same settings in the fill tool.

Step 4

Go to Image/Special Effects/Cutout and set the settings as follows:

DESELECT Fill Interior Color
Shadow Color: Black
Opacity: 150
Blur: 7
Vertical & Horizontal: -2
Click OK

Now go to Image/Normal Filters/Sharpen more...

And you are done!

Variations

There are different variations that you can do. For instance, if you want to do this technique on a black background, you do all the same steps except, in Step 1, make the foreground color black, and in Step 3, DO NOT Hot Wax Coat.

You can also use Colors/Adjust/Brightness-Contrast to lighten the reflection before going on to Step 3 when working with a black background.

When using a black background, bright colors work best, but with a white background darker shades will work, depending on the design and darkness. You will just have to experiment. For my backgrounds, I may use graphics I found elsewhere, but I like to use Kai Power Tools as well as Krusty's FX Vol. 2 Generators to make backgrounds. For the main sample I used Kai's gradient generator and for the following, I used Krustys' pattern generator M. I also did Image/Special Effects/Cutout twice.

I hope you have fun with this technique. And if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to e-mail me!

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