How to Add Reflections To Sunglasses With Photoshop
In this tutorial, we will learn to reflect on sunglasses in Photoshop. The technique of this photo editing trick is not complicated, so even beginners shouldn’t have a problem with it
Photos to edit and brush
- Hat 8
- Beach
- Sparkle Brushes
Step 1
Open the photo with Miss. It’s too big to cut it a bit. Select the Crop tool (C) and select an area like me in the image below.
When you have selected, press ENTER
Step 2
Now we need to make a selection inside the glasses so that we can replace it with the selected reflection. The Pen tool (P) is best suited for this purpose. Choose it and click on the contours of the slides.
Then press CTRL + ENTER to make the click path a selection, and then press CTRL + ALT + N to create a new layer. Then use CTRL + BACKSPACE to fill the selection with the background color (it doesn’t matter which one is currently selected)
Step 3
Open photo with the beach. Put it all in the selection with CTRL + A and copy CTRL + C. Then we return to our photo with the girl with glasses and press CTRL + V to insert
This photo will be our reflection in glasses, but so far it is too big. To reduce it, use the Free Transform tool CTRL + T. Choose size and position approximately as shown below.
Step 4
To show us the beach only through the glasses we will need to create a clipping mask layer. All you need to do is hold the ALT and click on the layer bar between the two layers of reflection and selection.
Step 5
The reflection now looks too light, so we darken it a bit.
Create a new adjustment layer with curves Layer -> New adjustment layer -> Curves. Set the layer mode to “Multiply” and use ALT to snap it to the reflection layer, as we did in the previous step.
This is the same as duplicating the reflection layer and changing the mode to “Multiply”, but the file size is smaller and the curves can be modified.
Step 6
The reflection still looks pretty fake, so let’s add a shadow effect to make it look more realistic. Create a new layer (CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + N) and name it “inner shadow”
Hold CTRL and click the selection layer, then click once on the “inner shadow” layer. Then press CTRL + BACKSPACE to fill the selection with the background color
Double-click the Inner Shadow layer to add an Inner Shadow effect. Set the slider to 0%
The effect now looks too strong, so we reduce the opacity of all layers except the main background photo. Select layers by holding CTRL and clicking on them. Then use CTRL + G to create a group of layers. We call it “reflection on the right” and reduce the overall coverage to 75%
Step 7
Repeat steps 2 through 6 to create the same effect on the left slide, so this is how your creation should look
Step 8
Reflections already look nice, but there is still room for improvement. For example, a transition might do wonders. Create a new layer using CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + N and name it “transition”
Open the “reflection to the right” layer group and select the layer with the selection while holding CTRL. We will do the same with the layer on the left
Step 9
Then select the “Transition” layer and use the “Transition” function. Select a transition from black to white from the menu.
Hold SHIFT and drag the eyeglasses from the bottom to a little above them. This should fill them with a nice transition from black to white. We then deselect with CTRL + D
Change the layer mode with the transition to Overlay and you should see a beautiful reflection as shown below.
Step 10
Import the downloaded brush (Edit -> Preset -> Preset Manager) into Photoshop and create a new layer (CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + N). Click once with this brush and the effect is likely to be too great. So we use the CTRL + T free transform tool to shrink and place that new layer on the left of the spectacle frame as a flare
Step 11
The photo looks good, but I still don’t like the warm colors (considering that we see a tropical island in the reflection) We balance colors with an adjustment layer (Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Color Balance.) Slider with cyan moves the color all the way to the left and blue to the right.
Step 12
In the end, I would still crop the photo a little bit, to give more emphasis to adjusting just for glasses. Select the Crop Tool (C) and crop the photo approximately like me below.
We’re done