Studio Presentation Backdrop

Start with a new document. I chose 400x400 RGB with a black background. Fire up the totally under-utilised Filter >> Render >> Lighting Effects filter, and use the following settings…

Light Colour : White
Intensity : 100
Gloss : 100
Material : -100

Leave all other settings at defaults, now use the little circular 'handles' on the ovoid to position and shape your light. I just moved the center of the light down a bit, and pulled the sides in a bit to focus the light more.

You should end up with something like this.

Now, on a new layer, draw a linear gradient covering the lower third'ish of the canvas, with your colours being a medium-light grey, through to black. This is your 'table top' on which your presented object will sit.

If you are new to Photoshop, the next few steps could be a bit tricky, but if you practice them, you'll find they really aren't that tough after all. Intermediate to Advanced users will be fine.

Create a Levels Adjustment Layer above the previous 2 layers, and pull the white output slider to the left, this will bring your whites down to greys, without any destructive changed to the base images. This is always a good practice, since it means you can re-use the same file and adjust all the variables to suit the object. Lighter objects suit darker backgrounds and viceversa.

Then, on top of the stack, create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and click the colorize checkbox. If you have done it right, your grey spotlight should now turn pinkish. Play with your sliders until you get something you are happy with. Success will leave you with a close variation of this image...

Now, wasn't that simple! You can now play and present until you have your presentation finished. Here's one we popped in the oven earlier…

As you can see, I have adjusted the lighting on the 'tabletop' to suit the image better. Simply I created a new 'tabletop' layer, filled it with a black-white-black gradient, and set it's blending mode to Darken, then pulled it around until it looked right.

Finally I dropped a planet on it, create a duplicate of the planet, flipped it vertically and set it's opacity to 40%, and slipped a shadow in between. Simpleness.