No this is not Photoshop mirroring again, but a more old fashioned technique – using a real mirror. Have you ever tried photographing Hellebore’s or other flowers whose blooms always face the ground? Some daffodils are like this. It can be very awkward to say the least. The lower they are the harder it gets and can be impossible.
While thumbing through my “Joy of Photography” book by Freeman Patterson he suggest in one section using a mirror placed on the ground for such occasions. Great idea. Note there are some issues with this technique. You need a very clean mirror and you have to keep cleaning it as you go – flowers have a habit of dropping pollen. Keep a brush handy. This blog image included here is an example of such an image. Works pretty well.
Blog image: While being shot in the mirror, this image of Hellebore’s has also been “hi-keyed” and a white vignette added to the edges. What does it mean to hi-key. Fundamentally you are keeping or forcing the image tones all to the light end of the histogram (digitally speaking).
