Reflection measurements were performed on dry and moistened sand grains and glass spheres, respectively. A simple model for determining the water content is proposed from looking at the reflection distribution in the plane of incidence. The model is a combination of two sheared cosine-functions and consists of only two parameters. One parameter controls whether the reflection is mainly in the forward or backward direction. The former is true when the water content is high and the latter is true when the material is dry. The other parameter gives an idea of the homogeneity of the material.