Visual Techniques /01 Reflections

I’m starting a new column focusing on visual techniques that will make your photos look more interesting - I’m excited, and I hope you are, too! :)

Today I want to have a look at reflections, and give you a few tips on taking reflection photos.

Reflections are a great way to make a photo look more interesting, and more intriguing.
More intriguing especially if you can’t exactly tell what’s going on, like in the photo of the water below.
You get to see the same things that you would see if there was no reflection - but at the same time you can add objects (like a mirror for example), and you can also leave stuff out (i.e. the sides of an object, like the car seats in the vertical photo below). This way it's up to the imagination of the viewer to add what's missing.

Useful objects for reflection photos are glasses, windows, vases, the front element of a camera, water/puddle, mirrors, etc.

Another (not so obvious) advantage of reflections is the ‘frame within the frame’ which you get when you use a mirror as a reflection object for example.
I’ll talk about the ‘frame within the frame’ in a bit more detail some other time.

When taking a reflection photo make sure you never focus on the actual material of reflection (e.g. glass of mirror), but on the actual object. The real point of focus is actually behind the mirror.

Applying this visual technique will definitely add a little special to your photo, so I hope you can make good use of it soon. :)