Can someone explain the techniques for shooting on a mirror?

[JBW]

[Loose Canon]

Hi Brian,

First thing is it is usually better to shoot on a piece of black plexiglass if you can.

If you use a mirror you will get what’s known as “ghosting” which is a double reflection on the glass. You will get a reflection on the glass surface and another reflection from the silver mirror reflective that is on the bottom of the glass.

There is such a thing as “first surface” mirrors. With this the mirror surface in on the top of the glass rather than the bottom. But this is very expensive stuff!

Another option is to take a piece of non-mirrored glass and spray paint the backside black. This does fairly well as long as you shoot from a low angle. Otherwise you can get the ghosting from this too.

The downside of plexi is that it scratches fairly easily.

[Mike Buckley]

To add to Terry's comments, I like to use a mirror when I want the ghosting effect that he mentioned. I find it attractive in this photo. However, like anything, it works for me only in certain situations. I would probably want to avoid the ghosting effect when photographing a plant or animal.

Plain glass with no mirror backing and nothing sprayed on it will also produce an elegant, subtle reflection, as in this photo.

When Terry mentioned that plexiglass scratches fairly easily, that's an understatement for a klutz like me. Keep in mind that the black plexiglass will reflect the color of whatever the background is; even though the plexiglass is black, it will reflect white, grey or whatever color it is reflecting, as in this photo.

[JBW]

thanks guys. By the sounds of it I am just not going to get a great shot when the moth settles on the bathroom mirror?

[Mike Buckley]

It's not that you can't get a great shot on your bathroom mirror. It's that to make that happen, you will have to control an environment that is far more difficult to control than, as an example, a makeshift or real studio situation.

[Downrigger]

thanks guys. By the sounds of it I am just not going to get a great shot when the moth settles on the bathroom mirror?

You already did!

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Brian,

Another thing to consider is that if you want both subject and reflection sharp, say to produce a 'dual view' of the creature (as above), you need even more Depth of Field than usual, because of the longer light path from subject > mirror > camera versus the direct subject > camera distance. Choosing which bit to focus on, to get the hyper-focal distance correct for the maximum amount of subject and reflection sharpest, could also be tricky. (Not sure I worded that very well)

[jcuknz]

It does depend on the subject but the easy solution can be to take two shots of the reflection and the actual and put them together in editing.