by Melissa Raissa

Created on: October 28, 2010   Last Updated: October 30, 2010

Reflection effects are used by many web designers and photo editors to improve the appearance of a flat or two-dimensional image. Just like drop shadows, reflection effects are often used to give depth or dimension to a particular object in a photo.

Choosing an image

Reflection effects are best achieved using images with transparent or solid-colored backgrounds. A good example for this  would be product photos, those that are shot in studios, because they usually have a standard all-white or all-black background.

The main thing to consider is that the background at the lower part of your photo, which is where you’ll add the reflection effect, has a color that’s easy to acquire so that the entire picture looks seamless once you add in the object‘s reflection.

Transparent image files like GIF or PNG are even easier to manipulate since you can add the background later on after you’ve edited the objects in the image. We will be adding this effect on transparent image files first and adapt some steps later on for JPEG and other image files.

Creating Reflection Effects For Images With Transparent Background

First, open your chosen image file using the GIMP program. Duplicate the original image by pressing SHIFT+CTRL+D on your keyboard or by clicking LAYER->DUPLICATE LAYER at the menu bar. Adjust the Opacity of the duplicate layer to lower levels by dragging the corresponding slider which can be found at the upper area of the Layers dock.

Now, we’re going to flip and rotate the semi-transparent layer so that it becomes a mirror image of the original layer. At the menu bar, click LAYER->TRANSFORM->ROTATE 180°. Once that’s done, click LAYER->TRANSFORM->FLIP HORIZONTALLY. You should now have a mirror image of the object.  

Activate the MOVE tool at the toolbox or click TOOLS->TRANSFORM TOOLS->MOVE at the menu bar. Using the MOVE tool, drag the mirror image layer down to the bottom of the original layer. Make sure to place the mirror image in a convincing way. If the mirror layer goes beyond the boundaries, just click IMAGE->FIT CANVAS TO LAYERS at the menu bar.

Once you’ve achieved a good mirror effect, click EDIT->COPY VISIBLE at the menu bar but, first, make sure there are no active selections by pressing SHIFT+CTRL+A. At the working copy, click IMAGE->FLATTEN IMAGE at the menu bar. The resulting background for your flattened image depends on the current Background Color you’re using

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