Reflections are everywhere, and sometimes we try to photographically avoid them. In fact, you might even use a polarizer filter to reduce reflections. But you can incorporate reflections into your photography and use them creatively, making them an element of your pictures. Let’s take a look!

Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.

There are two ways to incorporate reflections into your pictures. Either way will require a shiny surface—such as glass or water—in order to reflect what is around. After a rainy day you’ll find puddles. In a city are glass on buildings. Look around and you’re sure to find shiny surfaces. The first method to incorporate reflections is subtly and the second is prominently. Sometimes the line between these two categories is grey, and you could argue that an image could be in either, but for the most part a picture will fall into one or the other, and will be either subtle or prominent—not both—although there are always exceptions.

Subtly

For this, the reflection isn’t the main subject, but an added element in the picture. It’s just something that is there, yet it adds interest to the picture, and maybe even transforms what would otherwise be a boring image into something extraordinary. Subtle reflections might not be the first thing that you notice when you see a picture, but are a great surprise once spotted. This can be tricky to effectively create, but can be highly rewarding if you can subtly incorporate reflections into your pictures.

Prominently

When you make reflections a prominent part of a picture, it becomes the subject. The reflection is what the picture is about. It’s an obvious element that you notice right away (although you might not notice right away that it is a reflection you are viewing). This type of reflected picture is the easiest to capture (in my opinion), but can be difficult to make a strong image from. Basically, for prominent reflection pictures, you want to fill the frame with the reflection as much as practical. Instead of the reflection being just a small part, it is the largest part of the frame, or at least where your eyes gravitate towards first. The photograph at the top of this article, Vespa Mirror Reflection, is an example where the reflection doesn’t fill the frame but is a prominent element that immediately attracts your attention. More commonly, though, prominent reflections will cover at least half of a picture, if not all of it (such as Treeline Impressions below).

When capturing photographs, look for opportunities to incorporate reflections into them. Is the reflection the main subject? Fill the frame with it, or use some other technique to immediately draw the viewer to it. Is the reflection not the main subject? Find ways to subtly place it so that the viewer is pleasantly surprised when the discover it.