Reflected Text in Photoshop

For this Tutorial, we will use a background image of a lonely highway and Fester Free Font from Nawras Moneer.

1 - In Photoshop, open the image you chose as “Background” and duplicate it (Command/Control + J).

2 - Hide the “Duplicate” by clicking on the small eye icon to the left of the Layer’s thumbnail. Then, select the “Type Tool” (T), make sure white is your “Fill” color. Choose your font (we used Fester Semi-condensed Heavy) and type your text (the size will depend on your image and font). Make sure your text layer is placed between the two background images.

3 - Use “Free Transform” (Command/Control + T) to resize your text and place it on top of the road. Once you are happy with it, click “Enter”. Leave some space close to you for the reflection.

4 - Right-click on your text and choose “Rasterize Type”, then duplicate your Text Layer. Select the original “Type” Layer click (Command/Control + T) to use “Free Transform”, right-click on top of the text in your document and choose “Flip Vertical”.

5 - Drag the flipped text down while holding the “Shift” key and place it just under the other text. The bottom parts of each touching.

6 - Right-click on your selected text, choose “Perspective” and pull one of the bottom corner points to make your text look like is reflecting on top of the road.

7 - Right-click on your selection again and choose “Free Transform”. Push the text from the center towards the other text to make it shorter. Onge you are happy, click “Enter”.

8 - Select the “Move Tool” (V) and move the bottom text about 4 clicks down to leave some space between the two layers of text.

9 - Select your “Background” Layer, go to the “Adjustments” Panel and create a “Color Lookup Adjustment Layer”. Choose “NightFromDay.CUBE” from the 3DLUT File.

10 - Select your top layer (the “Background” duplicate), turn the visibility on, right-click on its thumbnail and choose “Create Clipping Mask”.

11 - Double-click on the top text layer and apply the following “Layer Styles”:

Stroke: (#ffffff)

Inner Glow: (#ffffff)

Outer Glow: (#ffffff)

12 - Select the bottom text layer, change the “Blending Mode” to “Overlay”, then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply a Radius of 6.0 Pixels.

13 - Duplicate that layer and click on the “Add Layer Mask” button at the bottom of the “Layers” Panel. Select the “Gradient Tool” (G) and making sure you selected the “Mask” thumbnail apply a “Foreground to Transparent” Gradient. Drag your cursor from the front of the text to the back.

14 - Check out your Artwork.