I had a lot of comments on my Mirrors II entry, so I thought I would address them here instead of sending people individual messages.
I shot in several locations within the forest. Eventually I found a relatively open area that had a beautiful light shinning down on it. I liked the ground covering and the bright yellow colours in the trees looked great against the blue sky. In the shot I eventually chose for my entry, the mirrored ball was purposely placed within the shadow of one of the trees. This allowed me to get an even exposure of both the leaves on the ground, and most of the details in the reflection. It also placed the sun behind the tree in the mirrored ball, and therefore, reduced the amount of blown out details. I knew it was a basic editing challenge, and therefore I wouldn't be able to select individual areas of the photo to correct their exposure.
I tried shooting from a low angle at first, but I preferred the high angle after having compared the two. This was mainly because the high angle left a circular reflection of the skyline. The last shot I took for this set was with my camera hid behind a tree. It did not come out nearly as nice, but that had mostly to do with the location and the direction of light.
Many people suggested creative ways to hide the tripod in the photograph. I think attaching leaves to the tripod would not look natural, and using a mirror to hide the camera would not work either because you would be able to see it in the reflection. In hindsight, the one thing I would have done differently is not spread the legs of the tripod a part as much. Perhaps they would have more resembled the angles of the trees. In the end, outside of DPC challenge, I was able to clone out the tripod. You can see the result below.
As for where I got the sphere? I borrowed it from work. It was there before I started working 4 years ago, and the person who bought it is no longer with us. If you would like to find something similar, I suggest googling "Stainless Steel Gazing Balls".
I have tried another shot using the mirror ball, and expect to have more in the future.
Original Shot (No Post Production)
My Entry (Basic Editing)
Edited Version
Thanks again for all your comments!
Cheers,
Jonathan
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