Wrong Reflection Angle?

[Retrophonica]

Hello everyone

I've been doing some Photoshop for a work project. I tried to recreate a reflection of the text.
I have a few questions

Is the angle correct?
When doing reflections, would you still have a bit of the shadow or should I have just reflected the text?

Any feedback, as usual, will be very gratefully received

Cheers
Andy

 

[IamSam]

Hello and welcome to PSG.

Great idea and your on the right track.

I see a few things that might be causing problems. The text on the wall has a drop shadow and therefore appears to be hovering off the wall. The text reflection is at the wrong angle and should be going straight down. The text reflection is too sharp and not fading. And the Phone would also be reflected.

 

[IamSam]

Sorry, another thing I noticed is that the text does not interact well with the wall. It would share similar lighting and shading as the wall. The text reflection would be a mirror image of the text, so yes, shadows and everything should be reflected.

 

[Retrophonica]

Hi Sam - Thanks for the advice - I'll reattach - Am I on the right lines?

Here's Version 2

Cheers
Andy

 

[IamSam]

Looking better!

Now you need to add a layer mask to the reflected text and use a gradient to fade it from the bottom.

edit: Did you increase the size of the reflected text? Is so, don't.

 

[Retrophonica]

Ok - going to need a little assistance with my friend YouTube - Back soon
PS - Yes I did raise the size to try to match - I'll dip it back down

 

[IamSam]

Ok.

Just duplicate the text layer, flip it, and move it straight down, make any angle adjustments, add Gaussian blur, lower the opacity, add the layer mask with a gradient.

 

[Retrophonica]

Something like this?

 

[IamSam]

Looking better.

Are you wanting the text to appear as though it were on the wall? If so, you need to remove the drop shadow from the text.

This is more like what a shiny reflection would look like. It fades the deeper it goes, this is why you need the layer mask with the gradient.

 

[Retrophonica]

That gradient is much better - When I tried to do a gradient it didn't fade as much as that. Your version is far more realistic - I definitely need to learn more about layer masks - Thanks so much for your help

 

[IamSam]

When I add a gradient to a reflection, I set my foreground and background colors to the black and white default. (Press D on keyboard)

Choose the gradient tool.

Click to edit the gradient in the Gradient Tools toolbar.


Choose the Foreground to transparent preset in the Gradient Editor.


Use the Linear gradient setting, blending mode set to normal, I lowered the tools opacity to 60%


Apply the gradient to the layer mask while holding the shift key.

 

[IamSam]

The drop shadow on your text is complicating matters. It far too dispersed. You need to lower it's spread or size.

Also notice that the same drop shadow effect in the layer style used on the text, does not translate to the reflected text.
Below you can see that the drop shadow goes below the reflected text as it does on the wall text.....


You have to uncheck 'use global light' and re-position the drop shadow on the reflected text so it remains proportional.

 

[Jerry D]

Please excuse me for butting in here, guys. I hope I'm not out of line doing this!

Wouldn't it look better if the reflected text was warped to the same angle as the "wall" ?



And if the main text looks like its standing off the "wall", the reflection wouldn't show much shadow, would it?

 

[Eggy]

Jerry D

I made a quick 3D example with a vertical plane (wall) and a horizontal plane (floor) with a text on the wall.
This is how PS 3D calculates

 

[Jerry D]

Well, I didn't say I was right! :redface: But something still looks off, to me.

 

[inkpad.t]

Ones a vertical plane and ones a flat horizontal plane, The text would not reflect down perfectly straight , it would be angled slightly on the horizontal plane , there would be 90 deg angle between the wall and floor unless the ground is sloping down, The text on the floor would be at a slight angle.

Take the text and turn it 3d, put on a plane, then turn that plane to the horizontal flat surface, then you will see its not straight down . Only my personal opinion but i suspect it would look something like these 2 examples.



or

 

[inkpad.t]

But this dos depend on where your light source is from.

 

[fredfish]

Inkpad, much as I don't like to contradict - surely you are describing shadows and not reflections? Have a look at this image. The reflections don't change to a 90 degree angle but appear to go straight down.

But then again I could be wrong (it has been known )



Cheers

John

 

[inkpad.t]

maybe it's me who's wrong, but dos it depend on the angle your looking at it. maybe it was shadows i was think of , lock me back in the tower.

 

[inkpad.t]

Silly me, yes it was shadows i was on about, just check back to the original post which mention about the shadows, I got mix up and said reflections, but what i meant was reflections of text shadows, durrrrrrrrrr.