Faded Lines

First off all I’m using Photoshop CS2 for this, so I don’t know whether the steps/options differ in
other versions of Photoshop.

1. Let’s start by creating a new document of any size you want. Then give a background color to it. The
color should not be too darker or too lighter. (I chose grey color.)
2. Select Rectangle shape from the tools palette and draw a rectangle of another color (I chose Black
color) which is long enough for the effect you want. It should not be too slim.
3. Right click on the layer Shape 1(it is the rectangle we drawn) and select Blending Options from the
list.
4. Then a window will come up, tick on the Drop Shadow option. There give
Angle: 90
Distance: 10
Size: 20
Click OK.
5. Right click the layer Shape 1 and select Group into New Smart Object. Again right click that layer
and select Rasterize Layer.
6. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and select everything that's above the bottom of the rectangle
we drawn. Press Delete and then press Ctrl+D.
7. Set the fill of the layer Shape 1 to 0%.Then right click the layer and select Blending Options from the
list.
8. Then a window will come up, tick on the Gradient Overlay option. There give
Gradient: Foreground to Transparent from the presets
Style: Reflected
Angle: 0
Click OK.
9. Duplicate the layer Shape 1. The name of the duplicated layer will be Shape 1 copy.
10. Select the layer Shape 1 copy and press Ctrl+T. Right click and select Flip Vertical and press Enter.
Select the Move Tool and move the duplicated one a few steps towards the top, so that both
layers would overlap each other by only one pixel.
11. Right click on the layer Shape 1 copy and select Blending Options from the list.
12. Then a window will come up, take the Gradient Overlay option (which is already selected).Double
click on the Gradient option, there we can see in the bottom half a larger scale for the actual gradient
with four tiny little squares on each corner.
13. Double click on the bottom left square without moving it and you'll see a box to choose the
color. Choose white.
14. Double click on the bottom right square without moving it and you'll see a box to choose the
color. Choose white. Click OK in the gradient editor so that only one window with your layer
style will remain open.
15. Give the opacity 40%.Click OK.
16. Click on the layer Shape 1 copy, press and hold Shift and click on layer Shape 1.Now all the
layers are selected except the Background layer. Press Ctrl+E. Now the layers are merged.
17. Now we are done. Remember I done this on a simple background color. If you are doing this
on an image you will need to adjust the opacity and the gradient color.