Every so often, I come across a request regarding the techniques behind shiny reflective buttons like this one:
You really can't deny it - they're used in a lot of places (apparently some people think they're cool)! Although I discourage the use of them whenever possible, I don't want to discourage the knowledge of how they are created. So without further adieu, let me show you the few steps I use to make pretty buttons (using Adobe Photoshop) in just a few short minutes.
Step 1: Create the base button shape
With the Rounded Rectangle Tool, set the corner radius to about 5 px (you can find the setting in the top bar when the tool is selected), then create a rounded box. I drew mine 30px tall by 170px wide, and chose a basic orange for the box color. Rename the layer "button"
Step 2: Set the Layer Styles
Double-click the button layer to open the Layer Styles dialog box. We're going to add three different styles here to get the base.
The first style is a basic drop-shadow and is completely optional. Just check the box to get the default settings and you're good.
The second style will be a gradient overlay. Check the box to activate the style, select a basic white-to-black gradient, check the "Reverse" option, set the "Blend Mode" to "Linear Dodge" and drop the opacity down to about 30% (this value may vary depending on what base color your object is). What you looking for is a gradient that brightens up the lower half of the button (this simulates a glow from within).
The third style is a stroke. Choose a color just a bit darker than the button, set 'Position' to 'Inside', 'Size' to '1px', and 'Blend Mode' to Multiply.
Step 3: Creating the highlight
Create a new, empty layer and name it "highlight". Ctrl-click (PC), or Command-click (Mac) on the "button" layer to select the Layer transparency. Nudge this selection up by half the height of the "button" object with the arrow keys. Since I created a 30px tall object, I nudged the selection up by 15px.
Now fill this selection with black in the highlight layer (the actual color you fill with doesn't matter, I chose black for illustrative purposes only). Once again, select the Layer transparency of "Button", but this time don't nudge it. We're going to create a mask for the highlight with this selection, and it has to be lined up with the "Button" layer perfectly to look right.
Without losing the selection area, look down at the bottom of your Layers palette for an icon that looks like a small circle inside of a rectangle, like this: 
. Clicking on that will transform your selection into a Layer Mask on the "highlight" layer.
Double-click "highlight" to open the Layer Styles dialog box. This time we're only interested in the Gradient Overlay. Almost the same settings as before, but this time the Blend Mode should be set on "Screen".
Hopefully, hitting the Okay button gives you something that looks like the following image:
That's it! Feel free to explore any of these options to create your own kind of buttons. You can also grab the source file used in this tutorial here.