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Mirror Image

In addition to Fall colors on the trees, cooler temperatures result in less wind, enabling great reflection shots, especially early in the morning.  This was taken last weekend in the Eastern Sierra region of California.

Mirror Image

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67 thoughts on “Mirror Image”

  9. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    You may ask what camera I use +Robert Johnstone, but it makes no more difference than what pan I use for cooking.  The skill is in the experience of the person using the tool, not the brand or model of the tool.  

    In the case of digital photography the use of post-processing software such as Adobe Lightroom is critical, but again what's important is my experience and skill using the software.

    My photos on G+ were produced on a Canon 5D Mark III, 5D Mark II, 40D, XTi, XT, and a Powershot G5, and sometimes an iPhone 4.  I would produce similar results using Nikon cameras.

    For certain special applications, such as night photography of dark starry skies, cameras with "full frame" sensors and lenses allowing an aperture of f/2.8 work best (such as the Canon 5D Mark II or III).

  18. Patrick Hughes
    Reply

    +Jeff Sullivan It is indeed a very nice picture, but I have a question for you. In my experience (observational only – I'm not a photographer, but I do have good spatial perception) It would seem to me that the far foliage in the mirrored lake would be somewhat displaced and in some cases obscured due to perspective. Is the mirrored lake part of the image flipped and a "wave" filter applied? Or am I off base here?

  36. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    It's good to be skeptical +Patrick Hughes because there is a fair amount of unethical and outright fraudulent behavior out there.  Personally, I'd much rather spend time outside getting a shot right up front than in front of a computer trying to fake something on a computer later.  I find it much easier to simply take nice pictures than to fake them.  

    I haven't used that technique here, and I can count on one hand the times I've used digital compositing… as an experiment and April Fools Day joke for example, like this image I created in 2006 (and wouldn't remember how to repeat today): https://plus.google.com/107459220492917008623/posts/PuFFqnVRgSp:

    My Adobe Lightroom editing program doesn't do layers or composites, and I installed a copy of Photoshop Elements on my laptop because I got it in a bundle with Premiere Elements (which I use for video editing) and I use it to save screen captures (I can grab them in Windows, but don't know how to save them without going though PS Elements).

    I've screen-copied my view of the adjacent shots in Lightroom and posted it to my header above… exposure bracketed and with some minor composition and filter variations, but no content-changing edits.

  56. Patrick Hughes
    Reply

    Thanks for answering my question +Jeff Sullivan it wasn't coming from skepticism so much as simply an observation. One cannot judge exactly due to changes of perspective. It is most likely that the affect I perceived is mitigated by the gentle slope of the background. It would most likely be much more obvious with a steeper slope.

  60. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    The classic case of parallax +Patrick Hughes is reading a needle on a guage from different angles and getting different results against the scale in the background.  Similarly in photography when I tend to notice it there's an intermediate object (analogous to the needle) which appears in a reflection with a different perspective relative to a more distant background.  You see it slightly with the top of the hill on the right side across the lake in this photo, and even more so with some hills reflecting in many of the photos I've taken at Topaz Lake, against much more distant mountains:  https://plus.google.com/photos/+JeffreySullivan/albums/5675675387196096801

    The two viewing positions, direct and reflected, have to be far enough apart (in distance, and angle to the objects) to make a difference.  When I'm taking reflection photos in a lake, to maximize the efficiency and brightness/quality of the reflection I often reduce the angle of incidence of the reflected image by using a very low tripod position.  A low angle of incidence reflects more of the light, but that camera move also moves the reflection closer, reducing the slight differences in perspective, reducing parallax issues.  (Focus for the reflected image remains in the distance.)

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