var advanced_ads_pro_visitor_conditions = {"referrer_cookie_name":"advanced_ads_pro_visitor_referrer","referrer_exdays":"365","page_impr_cookie_name":"advanced_ads_page_impressions","page_impr_exdays":"3650"};
var essb_settings = {"ajax_url":"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php","essb3_nonce":"b59c54b5e1","essb3_plugin_url":"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/easy-social-share-buttons3","essb3_stats":true,"essb3_ga":false,"essb3_ga_ntg":false,"blog_url":"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/","post_id":"480488"};
Before you flip the clapboard and say “action”, you may want to ask yourself—Do I want this to be an everyday picture? Or an amazing picture?
If it's the former, then you may start shooting.
But if it's the latter, let's get you prepped. Because you'll be needing more than lights, cameras, and mirrors to enhance your photoshoot.
Today, we've simplified the essentials of mirror photography into simple tips that you can execute at home. Even if it's just you, your reflection, and uhm… some more reflection.
Amazing, right? Well, what can we say? We love superb photography. And we believe everyone can achieve it—with the right tips, lessons, and practice.
Budding photographers often wonder what the difference is between mirror and reflection photography.
Well, here’s some breaking news—they're the same. It’s like a parent-subsidiary relationship.
Reflection photography is the parent. It comprises images taken with any reflective surface, such as mirrors, puddles, and glasses.
But our focus today will be on one aspect of it—mirror images.
Tip Set 1: Props/Setting
Take The Mirror Outdoors
Is there any rule that a mirror photograph must be taken indoors?
Definitely not.
In fact, before mirror images became a thing, most reflective surfaces were natural elements. The ocean, puddles, rivers. And they are still very much in use.
So why don’t you enhance your creativity as well? Take a small mirror outside, perhaps to your garden or the front porch. It'll surprise you how natural elements add a striking effect to your portrait.
You could also use your car mirrors. Because who says you have to be on the move to achieve ecstatic car photography?
Play With The Mirrors
Looking for something surreal? Let’s give you some ideas.
Since mirror shots have a high tendency of being casual and repetitive, telling a story with yours would be quite creative.
So how can you tell a photographic story?
Try using shattered glass.
Capture the reflection of your subject along with those broken pieces, and you’ll be creating something interesting.
Photo by Thiago Matos
See how the above portrait looks like the hand of the subject was amputated along with the mirrors?
Imagine shooting a reel of pictures from when the hand was still in one piece, to when it got “scattered”, to how it got fixed. It's like a tale that subtly interprets life.
Generally, using many mirrors at once, broken or not, takes photographs to the next level, as you get to capture multiple reflections of the subject at a go. Lastly, how about putting the mirrors behind you? Yes, you read that right. This way, you'll be shooting your front and back view at the same time.
So really, you mustn't have professional editing skills to achieve creative pictures that give off an illusion.
Tip Set 2: Improvising
The Backdrop
You want a white background.
But home is, well, home. You don’t have it all and spending heavily might not be an option for you.
We come bearing good news, dear photographer—you may not need to break the bank. Your tablecloth or the wrong side of your bedspread could make a perfect white backdrop.
If there's nothing to hang it on, you could drape it over your curtain rods. Alternatively, create a backdrop stand following the tutorial below:
The Frames
Sometimes, you want to add a touch to your mirrors. Especially if you want the whole of it to appear in your picture.
Below is a DIY guide on how to build a frame for your mirror:
There is also the exciting option of turning regular items at home into cute frames.
It’s important to learn how to navigate the light setting of your camera. Even if you’re using a cell phone.
This way, you’d be able to determine when to follow the hard-and-fast rules, and when to go rogue with them. And whatever path you choose, you’ll still end up with a fantastic shot because you broke the rules like an artist, not like a novice.
So what's the best setting for mirror photography?
There's no “best” for any kind of photography. It all changes, depending on:
Time of day
How much artificial lighting you’re employing.
The general rule is, the darker your setup, the higher your ISO should be. Meaning if you're outside on a bright day, you'll need less ISO, usually between 100 –200. And on days when the sun is asleep, you'll need to turn it up a bit.
If you're indoors and your natural/artificial light is on fire, you'll need less ISO and vice versa.
But this rule could vary. For example, some shots require high ISO, even though the environment is well lit.
Also, mirrors reflect light. So even in a semi-dark setup where a higher ISO is expected, this may not be necessary if the mirror is angled to the direction of the lighting.
ISO could also be determined by what level your aperture and shutter speed are.
We've written detailed articles on how to determine the best ISO, shutter speed, and aperture per time.
Spin, capture how the reflections look from afar off, close up, the side, and even from the top. By placing the mirror on the ground, you could achieve that view-from-top-angle.
In some shots, focus on the reflection, and in others, focus on your subject.
The point is, regular images are no longer interesting. There are many angles you could explore, particularly if you're looking to tell a story with your pictures.
Black & White
Classic.
Different.
Amazing.
That's what black and white photographs are. And yes, it works well with mirror photography.
We want to teach people how to create the photographs that they aspire to. We want to take you from snapshots to intentional and well-considered images. We do that through free written and video tutorials and affordable courses.
var advanced_ads_cookies = {"cookie_path":"\/","cookie_domain":""};
var advadsCfpInfo = {"cfpExpHours":"3","cfpClickLimit":"3","cfpBan":"7","cfpPath":"","cfpDomain":"www.lightstalking.com"};
var beloadmore = {"url":"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php","query":{"post__not_in":[480488],"category_name":"portrait","posts_per_page":3}};
var tve_dash_front = {"ajaxurl":"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php","force_ajax_send":"1","is_crawler":"","recaptcha":[],"post_id":"480488"};
var TVE_Ult_Data = {"ajaxurl":"https:\/\/www.lightstalking.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php","ajax_load_action":"tve_ult_ajax_load","conversion_events_action":"tve_ult_conversion_event","shortcode_campaign_ids":[],"matched_display_settings":[],"campaign_ids":[],"post_id":480488,"is_singular":true,"tu_em":"","evergreen_redirects":[]};
(function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async=true;; po.src = 'https://www.lightstalking.com/wp-content/plugins/easy-social-share-buttons3/lib/modules/conversions-pro/assets/share-conversions-tracker.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();(function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async=true;; po.src = 'https://www.lightstalking.com/wp-content/plugins/easy-social-share-buttons3/assets/modules/pinterest-pro.min.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();(function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async=true;; po.src = 'https://www.lightstalking.com/wp-content/plugins/easy-social-share-buttons3/assets/modules/subscribe-forms.min.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();(function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async=true;; po.src = 'https://www.lightstalking.com/wp-content/plugins/easy-social-share-buttons3/assets/js/essb-core.min.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();
var essb_handle_stats = function(oService, oPostID, oInstance) { var element = jQuery('.essb_'+oInstance); var instance_postion = jQuery(element).attr("data-essb-position") || ""; var instance_template = jQuery(element).attr("data-essb-template") || ""; var instance_button = jQuery(element).attr("data-essb-button-style") || ""; var instance_counters = jQuery(element).hasClass("essb_counters") ? true : false; var instance_nostats = jQuery(element).hasClass("essb_nostats") ? true : false; if (instance_nostats) { return; } var instance_mobile = false; if( (/Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|BlackBerry|IEMobile|Opera Mini/i).test(navigator.userAgent) ) { instance_mobile = true; } if (typeof(essb_settings) != "undefined") { jQuery.post(essb_settings.ajax_url, { 'action': 'essb_stat_log', 'post_id': oPostID, 'service': oService, 'template': instance_template, 'mobile': instance_mobile, 'position': instance_postion, 'button': instance_button, 'counter': instance_counters, 'nonce': essb_settings.essb3_nonce }, function (data) { if (data) { }},'json'); } }; var essb_log_stats_only = function(service, postId, position) { var instance_mobile = false; if( (/Android|webOS|iPhone|iPad|iPod|BlackBerry|IEMobile|Opera Mini/i).test(navigator.userAgent) ) { instance_mobile = true; } if (typeof(essb_settings) != "undefined") { jQuery.post(essb_settings.ajax_url, { 'action': 'essb_stat_log', 'post_id': postId, 'service': service, 'template': position, 'mobile': instance_mobile, 'position': position, 'button': position, 'counter': false, 'nonce': essb_settings.essb3_nonce }, function (data) { if (data) { }},'json'); } };
let ccwpDOMLoaded=!1;
let ccwp_loaded = false;
let resources_length=0;
let resources =undefined;
let is_last_resource = 0;
ccwpUserInteractions=["keydown","mousemove","wheel","touchmove","touchstart","touchend","touchcancel","touchforcechange"];
ccwpUserInteractions.forEach(function(e){
window.addEventListener(e,calculate_load_times);
});
function calculate_load_times() {
// Check performance support
if (performance === undefined) {
console.log("Performance NOT supported");
return;
}
// Get a list of "resource" performance entries
resources = performance.getEntriesByType("resource");
if (resources === undefined || resources.length <= 0) {
console.log("NO Resource performance records");
}
if(resources.length){
resources_length=resources.length;
}
for(let i=0; i < resources.length; i++) {
if(resources[i].responseEnd>0){
is_last_resource = is_last_resource + 1;
}
}
let uag = navigator.userAgent;
let gpat = /Google Page Speed Insights/gm;
let gres = uag.match(gpat);
let cpat = /Chrome-Lighthouse/gm;
let cres = uag.match(cpat);
let wait_till=300;
let new_ua = "Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 11; moto g power (2022)) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/109.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36";
let new_ua2 = "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/109.0.0.0 Safari/537.36";
if(gres || cres || uag==new_ua || uag==new_ua2){
wait_till = 3000;
}
if(is_last_resource==resources.length){
setTimeout(function(){
console.log("ccwpTriggerDelayedScripts timeout : "+wait_till);
ccwpTriggerDelayedScripts();
},wait_till);
}
}
window.addEventListener("load", function(e) {
console.log("load complete");
setTimeout(function(){
calculate_load_times();
},100);
});async function ccwpTriggerDelayedScripts() {
if(ccwp_loaded){ return ;}
ccwpPreloadStyles();
ccwpPreloadDelayedScripts();
ccwpLoadCss();
ccwpScriptLoading();
ccwp_loaded=true;
}
function ccwpPreloadStyles() {
let e = document.createDocumentFragment();
var cssEle = document.querySelectorAll("link[rel=ccwpdelayedstyle]");
for(let i=0; i <= cssEle.length;i++){
if(cssEle[i]){
cssEle[i].href = removeVersionFromLink(cssEle[i].href);
let r = document.createElement("link");
r.href = cssEle[i].href;
r.rel = "preload";
r.as = "style";
e.appendChild(r);
}
}
document.head.appendChild(e);
}
function ccwpPreloadDelayedScripts() {
var e = document.createDocumentFragment();
document.querySelectorAll("script[type=ccwpdelayedscript]").forEach(function(t) {
var n = removeVersionFromLink(t.getAttribute("src"));
if (n) {
t.setAttribute("src", n);
var r = document.createElement("link");
r.href = n, r.rel = "preload", r.as = "script", e.appendChild(r)
}
}), document.head.appendChild(e)
}
function ccwpScriptLoading(){
var jsEle = document.querySelectorAll("script[type=ccwpdelayedscript]");
jsEle.forEach(function(t) {
t.type = "text/javascript";
if(t.src)
{
t.src = removeVersionFromLink(t.src);
}
});
}function ccwpLoadCss(){
var cssEle = document.querySelectorAll("link[rel=ccwpdelayedstyle]");
for(let i=0; i <= cssEle.length;i++){
if(cssEle[i]){
cssEle[i].href = removeVersionFromLink(cssEle[i].href);
cssEle[i].rel = "stylesheet";
cssEle[i].type = "text/css";
}
}var cssEle = document.querySelectorAll("style[type=ccwpdelayedstyle]");
for(let i=0; i <= cssEle.length;i++){
if(cssEle[i]){
cssEle[i].type = "text/css";
}
}
}
function removeVersionFromLink(link)
{
if(ccwpIsValidUrl(link))
{
const url = new URL(ccwpFormatLink(link));
url.searchParams.delete("ver");
url.searchParams.delete("time");
return url.href;
}
else{
return link;
}
}
function ccwpIsValidUrl(urlString)
{
if(urlString){
var expression =/[-a-zA-Z0-9@:%_\+.~#?&//=]{2,256}\.[a-z]{2,4}\b(\/[-a-zA-Z0-9@:%_\+.~#?&//=]*)?/gi;
var regex = new RegExp(expression);
return urlString.match(regex);
}
return false;
}
function ccwpFormatLink(link)
{
let http_check=link.match("http:");
let https_check=link.match("https:");
if(!http_check && !https_check)
{
return location.protocol+link;
}
return link;
}