Create a new image. I used 1024x768 set to 72 dpi with a black background. You will get better results with higher resolution images. Settings for layer styles will be determined by the resolution of the image.
I placed a wood image as a background for our table top.
After stretching the wood to the image width and 3/4 the image height, I added a layer mask to reveal the black background and fade the top edge of the wood photo. Use the gradient tool set to create a black fade in the layer mask.
To make this look more like a glossy piece of furniture, I want to add a glossy reflection to the wood. Create a new layer and paint a stripe across the picture in a white color.
I then blurred the white stripe to make it very soft using the gaussian blur tool. I also changed the layer blend mode of the white stripe layer to soft light.
Now we start creating sand. I used a smoke brush downloaded from
www.falln-brushes.deviantart.com. These are some great brushes and many soft semi-transparent brushes can be used for this technique. Play with what shapes work best for your design. The picture below shows the brush menu where you can access the brush tip shape and rotate the tip of the brush to any direction you want.
Here is the smoke brush rotated to the general shape I wanted.
Change the smoke layers blend mode to dissolve.
Transform the smoke using the Free Transform/Warp to shift the shape of the sand. It is important to get the shape accurate now, because distortions to the sand later tends to soften the edges and make loose the grains of sand.
No here is the trick. The dissolve blend mode makes it look like we have little painted dots but the layer still contains the soft gradients and any layer styles will reflect those soft gradietns instead of the little painted dots. So we want to create a new layer with just what we see. Turn off all the layers except for the smoke layer. Select All.
Copy Merged
Paste to a new Layer and turn off the original smoke layer.
Apply layers styles to the new merged smoke layer to give it a 3d look and some color. The settings will change depending on the resolution of the picutre you are creating.
The sand looks pretty good at this point but the overall shadows do not match the table. We need a faded shadow similar to the table top.
I went to the layer mask for the table top, selected the mask, did a select all and copy. I then went to the top of the layer menu and created a new layer and pasted the copied mask into a new layer. Change the blend mode of this layer to multiply. You can either choose to stop here or if this adds too much shadow to your image, you can make the shadow a clipping mask for the sand only so it only addes the shadow to the sand.
Your done.
Linear Mode
