Reflections are such a fun theme to play with, and the second half of April you guys did not disappoint! I love how many of you shared where your inspiration came from in these shots, and hope that many of these images help to inspire others going forward as well. Before we dive deep into layers, thought I'd share a handful of my favorite reflections!
Always look ahead when walking,
Gear: Canon Rebel T6 24mm
Settings: ISO 400, 1/100, 2.8
The Shot: I got some amazing inspiration from Pk Guerry and tried to recreate it. Set up black poster board behind her, filled a water glass and set it in front of her. I moved around and directed her until I got what I wanted.
Post Processing: Edited in LightRoom with black and white preset, pulled down highlights and whites. Took into Photoshop to remove some dust and used a curves layer to brighten the reflection. I want to do it again with a different glass that's not curved
Gear: Canon 6D and Canon 100mm 2.8
Settings: ISO 5000, f2.8, 1/3200s
The Shot: Low perspective, my lens at the same height as my daughter’s face, angling for the reflections.
Post Processing: Color corrected, straightened and cropped, darkened shadows, added highlights on all three of the subjects.
Gear: Canon R, 50mm 1.8
Settings: ISO 400, f3.5, 1/200
The Shot: Shooting some work for a friend in her painting studio. She had these doors with windows. She was at her easel and I positioned the door so her reflection was framed in the window.
Post Processing: Edited in LR with a personal preset, small adjustments the tone curve, brought up the shadows and down the highlights. I used a brush over her to add clarity and sharpness. Gradient filter on both sides to take away clarity and texture on the edges.
Gear: Nikon D850, 35mm Sigma Art
Settings: f/2, 1/8000, ISO 320
The Shot: I wanted to document the historic moment of going to get my vaccine, specifically the monumental task and incredible organization of these huge vaccine sites. At my first vaccine appointment, I got a few shots but none that were terribly exciting. It just looked like a bunch of cars. At the second vaccine, I sat back and really appreciated how happy the volunteers were to be there and help. I captured a few of them working in the reflection of my side mirrors before I drove up into the section where I actually got my vaccine and was no longer allowed to use my camera.
Post Processing: Edited in lightroom for color adjustments and add mastin labs Portra 160 preset. Brought into photoshop to clean up distracting elements and adjust the crop.
Gear: Nikon D7000 35mm 1.8
Settings: f/6.3 1/160s ISO 200
The Shot: Inspired by Angie Mahlke 's stunning window reflection photo. Taken from above while youngest was looking out of the window.
Post Processing: Few tweaks in LR, increased contrast, clarity and texture.
Gear: Canon 5DIV, Sigma 35 mm f/1.4, tripod and lens warmer (to keep dew off).
Settings: Sky F/2.8, 15 sec, ISO 1600 | House F/2.5, 10 sec, ISO 2000
The Shot: The sky is a stack of 201 images taken over an hour. I used my camera’s inbuilt interval timer to automatically take images with a 1 second gap. I also took another exposure for the house.
Post Processing: Basics adjustments in Lightroom. I then exported the images for the sky as jpgs and loaded them into a program called StarStax which aligned them. In Photoshop I made a composite and added in the properly exposed house.
Gear: Canon EOS 6D Mark ii. Sigma Art 35mm.
Settings: f2.5 1/800, ISO 2000
The Shot: When my son started climbing up the stairs I wanted to capture his new milestone and was wondering how best to do it. Then, I saw his reflection in the mirror and I knew that's what I wanted to capture. I stood right behind him on the stairs at an angle where I could take a picture of his reflection but I wouldn't appear
Post Processing: I edited it in Lightroom. I cropped it slightly, got rid of an ugly alarm panel, reduced the highlights, lifted the shadows, increased clarity, and went over the flags and red top with an adjustment brush to increase saturation.
Gear: Canon 6D 35mm
Settings: ISO 400 F/2.5 1/400
The Shot: I noticed him standing in the door way. I wanted to try to capture a reflection with the use of my cell phone. I moved my phone around until I was able to get as close to a full reflection as I could get.
Post Processing: I edited it in Lightroom. I straightened it, added some contrast, texture, and a little bit of dehaze. Pulled up my blacks an adjusted exposure.
Gear: Canon 6d mark II w/ a canon 35 mm
Settings: ISO 1600, ss 1/250, f2.8
The Shot: I stood in our hallway/landing outside the bathroom while my son played around with different hairstyles in the mirror with his comb after a shower.
Post Processing: Adjusted temperature and tint, slightly increased exposure, decreased highlights, raised shadows, decreased whites and blacks, added vibrance, clarity, and luminance.
Gear: Canon 6DMii Canon 50mm 1.8
Settings: ISO 160 F/ 2.5 SS 1/500
The Shot: We went out to our driveway around sunset to have some fun with the puddles from the recent rainstorm. I got down pretty low , almost sitting to capture him with his reflection.
Post Processing: I made minor adjustments in lightroom and then export to photoshop and used curves
Gear: Canon mkIV 35mm
Settings: f1.6, 1/125, ISO800
The Shot: I was inspired by a recent Jordi Koalitic IG post he did with an outer space theme... I didn't quite have the materials he did so I took a piece of glass, a matte board and a metal ring and fashioned a "space window". Then using a screen saver image of outer space on my computer monitor to reflect onto the glass I had my daughter pretend she was on the international space station.
Post Processing: In Photoshop I elongated and blended the top portion of the reflection, Adjusted the colors and levels. Sharpened and brightened her eyes which I was excited to find also reflected the image! Sharpened her and blurred the surrounding a little bit more then added a vignette.
Gear: Canon 5D MkII, Sigma 24-70
Settings: ss 1/200, f2.8, 80mm, ISO 800
The Shot: While I was shooting self-portraits in front of the mirror, it unexpectedly fell to the floor and shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces. Before cleaning the mess I shot this picture
Post Processing: Edited with Exhale preset from the Elements CM collection and local adjustments