Weekly Assignment #55: Faux Reflection

Nikolai

Reflections almost always create a great add-on to out images.

Unfortunately, sometimes there are no reflective media available.

Imagine a standalone tree in a middle of a field. No glassy office building, no still ponds. Yet you want/need a reflection... :dunno

The poor man approach is simply to flip the image vertically or horizontally. However, the results of such a trick are very easy to identify and usually leave a "cheap" impression.
Why? Because a reflection uses different family of angles.
So our task this week is to try to mimic the actual reflection. To achieve this goal, the following workflow is suggested

1. find the target
2. take the primary image
3. sketch/imagine the path of light that would be engaged by the reflective media (note: wider angle lens most likely will be needed)
4. take the "mirror point of view" shot
5. bring both images into your favorite photo editor, flip the "reflection" and blend (note: reflections are often less saturated, dimmed and distorted).

Your each entry (one per target, please) should consist of three images:

1. Primary image (target)
2. Secondary image (mirror POV)
3. Resulting blend.

Let's get some faux reflections!

Nikolai

I guess starting early in the week does not make any sense

Llywellyn

Not necessarily. I was just royally confused on the approach outlined above. Didn't quite make sense to me, so I decided to come back later when my brain was more functional.

...but it still isn't clear to me. Any examples?

Nikolai

Llywellyn wrote:

...but it still isn't clear to me. Any examples?

Well, here's a sketch.

In the first example when you want to imitate water/ground reflection you can't really go underground, so you have to come close and try using WA lens. It's not gonna be idea, but it's faux anyway:-)

In the second example when you want to mimic a side mirror you, sometimes, can in fact reposition your camera to get the actual reflective point of view.

Just remember to flip it and dim it :-)

HTH

Llywellyn

Okay, I felt so bad for this assignment, especially after Nikolai provided such a nice diagram. :cry So here's my attempt (cheer up, lonely thread!).

1. Target


2. Mirror POV


3. Blend

Nikolai

Llywellyn wrote:

Okay, I felt so bad for this assignment, especially after Nikolai provided such a nice diagram. :cry So here's my attempt (cheer up, lonely thread!).

Kerry,
awesome! Thank you so much!