How to Shoot a Reflection Successfully

Reflection is always beautiful. Shooting a reflection with amazing effects will win lots of compliment. But it’s never easy to achieve. More practice is needed to control the light. Therefore, I google the Internet and find some tips for you.

Capture equal parts subject and reflection of subject.

Attempt to hit the reflection head on – being far to the left or right of the subject will result in a lot of distortion in water – although that is a creative effect you could use.

Make sure that limbs of your subject (i.e. arms and feet) are present in the reflection if they are present in the “real” subject.

Play with light – reflection is all about light so seeing the reflection of the light source in your photo can be a great thing if the subject is lit naturally. But if you’re lighting with a spot light you want to make sure it isn’t in the reflection of your shot. You’d be surprised how many magazines have seen this on their pages.  

Watch for the unintentional reflection.

Try turning your subject so that their back is to the light source –having people face the light works particularly well with reflections. The lower the natural light source, the better it will be. So shooting a reflection of the trees in a lake is done at dawn and dusk. Full sunlight at 2pm won’t produce the reflection you’re looking for.