Mirrorlines: A Week of Reflections, Frames, and Overlaps

Why chase reflections?

Reflections are easy to overlook until they surprise you. A puddle flips the sky into a pocket, a shop window layers a street scene over a mannequin, a stainless-steel kettle turns your morning into an abstract swirl. Photographing reflections teaches you to see layers, to read depth that isn’t strictly about distance, and to compose with overlaps, symmetry, and subtle dissonance. It’s also an approachable way to make everyday places feel cinematic.

This week’s practice is simple: spend a few minutes each day looking for doubled worlds. You’ll come away with stronger instincts for composition, better use of highlights and shadows, and a small set of images you can edit into a tight visual sequence.

A week of Mirrorlines

1. Day 1 — Puddles and Ground Reflections. Walk a block or two after a rain shower. Shoot low, place the horizon either at the top or bottom third of the frame to emphasize the reflected sky or subject. Try including the real subject and its reflection in one frame for a split-world effect.

   Tip: Kneel or rest your camera close to the puddle so the surface becomes the foreground plane. Watch for ripples — a dropped pebble or passing car creates texture you can use deliberately.

2. Day 2 — Windows as Layers. Find a shopfront, car window, or café glass. Compose so reflections and the interior scene overlap. The best windows mix subject, reflection, and a small leading line.

   Tip: Change angle to control how much interior vs. exterior appears. Move left or right — reflection strength shifts dramatically with a few steps.

3. Day 3 — Mirrors and Portrait Layers. Use a mirror to shoot a portrait that includes the photographer, the subject, or both. Mirrors can frame, isolate, or create doubles; experiment with off-center subjects for tension.

   Tip: Pay attention to background clutter. A shallow depth of field (wide aperture) softens distractions and makes the mirror’s image feel like another plane.

4. Day 4 — Metallics and Shiny Surfaces. Kitchens, elevators, bicycles, and sculptures all reflect. Use curved metal surfaces to distort and abstract a scene. These surfaces are forgiving if you want to push towards pattern and mood rather than literal storytelling.

   Tip: Look for small, honest moments already happening around the object — a hand reaching for a mug, a face passing by — and wait.

5. Day 5 — Water Beyond Puddles. Ponds, rivers and even a glass of water offer reflection opportunities. Long focal lengths compress reflected layers; wide angles make reflections feel immersive. Try both.

   Tip: Golden hour softens reflections on water and often gives better color separation between real and reflected elements.

6. Day 6 — Urban Window Displays and Neon. After dusk, reflections mix with artificial lights. Neon and shop windows create colorful overlaps and ghostly silhouettes. Capture people moving behind reflections for cinematic mood.

   Tip: Use slightly slower shutter speeds to allow movement to blur through the reflection, or freeze a crisp pass for contrast.

7. Day 7 — Make a Diptych or Triptych. Use images from earlier in the week to build a small sequence that explores a single idea: doubled heads, sky-swapped puddles, or layered storefronts. Sequencing is part of the photography; how you show images changes the story.

   Tip: Put the most obvious image first, then surprise the viewer with a quieter or more abstract companion image.

Composition notes to keep on hand

• Symmetry and asymmetry both work. Symmetry emphasizes the mirroring; asymmetry highlights tension between worlds.
• Edge control matters. Reflected edges are often softer — use them to lead into sharper, real elements.
• Look for contradictions: warm light reflected into a cool scene, an interior full of still objects reflected against a bustling street.
• Negative space helps. A calm patch of color near a busy reflection gives the eye a resting place and strengthens storytelling.

Quick gear and settings guide

You don’t need special gear — a phone camera is perfect for reflections because you can move and react quickly. If you have a camera, a 35–50mm equivalent is wonderfully versatile. For creative control, try these starting points:

• Aperture: f/1.8–f/4 for portraits or abstracted mirrors; f/8–f/16 for landscapes and layered cityscapes.
• Shutter speed: 1/60s or faster for handheld clarity; 1/15s–1s for intentional motion blur on moving reflections (use a tripod if you want crisp surroundings).
• ISO: Keep ISO low for clean highlights; reflections emphasize specular highlights, and noise there can look harsh.

Polarizing filters can reduce unwanted reflections, but for this week you’ll mostly be chasing reflections, not removing them. Use the polarizer to tune how much reflection you want rather than to eliminate it entirely.

A practical editing checklist

• Crop tightly to reinforce the mirrorline or give breathing room to a twin composition.
• Adjust highlights and whites carefully — reflections often clip differently from the real scene.
• Local contrast and clarity can sell textures in puddles and glass; apply sparingly to avoid unnatural halos.
• Consider converting one image to black and white to emphasize shape and contrast against a color partner.

A small assignment to finish the week

Pick three images from your seven-day run and arrange them side by side as a loop: start with the most readable, follow with the strangest, finish with something quietly resolute. Share them as a single collage or a short post and write one sentence for each that explains what doubled world you were after. The caption is part of the photograph — it can be factual, poetic, or slightly wry. The goal is clarity: you want viewers to feel the split in the world you saw.

Reflections are a gentle practice in patience and angle. They teach you to wait for the right double, to move a step left, and to notice how ordinary surfaces carry entire alternate scenes. Go slow this week, look for the unexpected, and bring back a small set of photographs that make your everyday look like a different planet.