Note: I learned this technique from Robouk's tutorial and I liked it a lot. Too bad his site is now deceased. Much of the credit goes to him.

Create a new image with any background you want. I used a green background (#0A4C31) for the example on the left and a gray background (#64635C) for the chrome example.

Use the type tool to create your text and make it big so it fits the canvas. I'm using Times New Roman. text color is (#F8C350) for this gold and white for the chrome.

Now rasterize (render) the text layer (Layer>Type>Rasterize (Render) or right click on the text layer in the layer pallete and select rasterize).

Ctrl + Click on the text layer to create a selection around the text.

Go to the channel pallete and create a new channel.

On the new channel, fill the selection with white then deselect (CTRL + D). Then go to filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and use radius = 5

Then apply the Gaussian Blur again, this time, use radius = 3

Apply Gaussian Blur again and this time use radius = 1.

Now go back to the layers pallete and select the type's layer.

Now with the type layer selected, go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and use the following settings : CLICK TO VIEW

Now go to image>Adjustments>Curves and use the following settings: CLICK TO VIEW

Now apply the Lighting effects again (Filter > Render > Lighting Effects) and use the following settings: CLICK TO VIEW

That's it, now if you want, you can apply the following drop shadow settings, this is how I came to the results you see. DROP SHADOW