How to Add Gloss Effect in Photoshop

This tutorial will teach you all about adding gloss effect to text, objects and shapes in Photoshop. This is a universal effect and the designs look attractive and sleek with this effect.

Now we will teach you adding gloss effect in Photoshop step by step:

Step 1

First of all, you need to create the shape that you want to be glossed on an empty canvas. However, you need not to do this every time, but we are doing this for learning sake as it is the simplest and fastest way of learning the technique. Here, we will take a rounded rectangle shape for learning purpose. You can do it with any shape, text or object.

Step 2

Now start building glossy effect on the shape. First of all, select the area where you want to give glossy effect. It is the trickiest part that you should perform carefully.

Move over to the layers window (Window>Layers) and click just one on the image to select the whole image. Hold CTRL key on keyboard and left click once on shape layer and a selection will be formed around the image. The outcome will be like:

Step 3

After making the selection, you need to trim some part away to make base of gloss effect that you desire for your image. Now you need to make a new layer. For this, click on `New Layer` icon on bottom of Layers Window:

After making a new layer, you start giving gloss effect to the image. You still require to limit the area of selection. For this, select square marquee tool from toolbar and set controlling power to one as shown below:

Now tools are all set for creating gloss effect, hence select the area where you want to add gloss. For learning sake, drag square selection just about half way into the image using left mouse button. The end result will be like this:

You can try more sorts of selections as well using tools such as lasso tools and circular marquee tools.

Step 4

Now is the time to create gloss effect. Select gradient tool from toolbar and set the controlling power as shown below:

Set the foreground color as white. Making it white is important because it is the only color that can properly achieve the gloss effect.

Step 5

With your gradient tool, drag downwards from the top of the image till the end of your selection. After it, hold CTRL key and tap D key. It will deselect the area. It will now look like this:

It looks good but you can still improve it using selection skills.

Step 6

Now select the whole image using CTRL and left click of mouse on the layer of actual image. After this, go to top menu, and navigate: Select>Modify>Contract.

Enter 2 px in the input box and press Enter.

Now you can even invert the selection. For this, you need to learn keyboard shortcuts. For inverting selection, press SHIFT and CTRL keys and hit I key of keyboard.

When it is completed, tap DEL and 2 pixels of gloss effect layer will be removed. It will look like this:

Similarly, you can experiment with different images and shapes using selection areas and different colors.