Reflections… do they add interest or detract from primary image?🤔

[Larry S.]

While downsizing (culling) and deleting images from my library I wondered if the reflections were the main reason I kept them. Do reflections add a “wow, that’s cool!” moment to the viewer or are they simply a gimmick to enhance an otherwise “ho-hum” average shot? Here are a few that started this train of thought….. Opinions please on the value of reflections, not my crummy work…

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[RikWriter]

Reflections always add interest.

 

[John Navitsky]

depends

 

[John Navitsky]

while this isn't reflections specifically, i think about it all the same way.

the way i think about photos and cropping is to take out everything that doesn't add value to the photo.

in this particular image, i REMOVED the leaf on the bottom because it didn't add value. i often do leave things in dog sport photos like cones or other accoutrements of dog sports, but that's because they add context and interest. here, the leaf is only a visual distraction.

in addition, i would have removed some from the bottom anyways, because while i do want context and depth connecting the image to the ground, i only want to include enough to accomplish that.

on the top, i wanted to pair it down to focus on the dog, however i did leave some of the tree because, like with the bottom it provides context, but also having the splash of color added to the overall composition, but that too was contextual because the splash of color happened to be there; if not, i probably would have cropped more

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[jeffnles1]

Most of the time I like reflection shots. I really like reflection shots when there is some movement in the water and the reflection is very abstract. I've even taken photos of only the reflection.

I guess it could be distracting sometimes but usually it adds something to the image.

 

[Nimi]

What @John Navitsky said. If the composition is right, as is the case with any image, thumbs up.

 

[abc123brian]

I normally like them as long as it’s composed well. In your samples, the one image I’d say doesn’t work as well is the second one as you have the reflection of the heron as well and throws the balance off for me. Much of this is subjective.

 

[Larry S.]

Most of the time I like reflection shots. I really like reflection shots when there is some movement in the water and the reflection is very abstract. I've even taken photos of only the reflection.

I guess it could be distracting sometimes but usually it adds something to the image.

……..To add to your 3rd sentence…. A friend sent me an picture taken from a boat of a shoreline during a recent European trip. I simultaneously saw a hidden image in the reflection that (to me anyway) looked like a Paul Cezanne painting. I flipped it and cropped down. In this case the reflection seemed more interesting than the original….

The original is first and the flipped cropped version below.

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[bleirer]

I think they can add if you include the whole reflection and give the reflection enough headroom, just as you would the main subject. Mistake would be cutting off or crowding the reflection.

 

[Viathelens]

I think it depends on the variables for each image. A reflection can be great, ho-hum, or detract from the image. No right or wrong, just "does it work" to improve the overall scene?

 

[NorthernFocus]

So you can see from the responses already that opinions vary widely. It's totally up to you. Might as well do what you like with them and recognize that if you ask for opinions they're going to be all over the board. I think @John Navitsky gave the best reply so far, i.e. if it doesn't add to the photo then is likely distracts. Something to think about when composing in the field and/or cropping in post.

 

[MarkB]

I believe they can be interesting, but I believe it takes a decent image from the start to make a good reflection.

 

[Woody Meristem]

It depends (how's that for a profound statement?). Sometimes they can definitely enhance a photo if the water is dead still, but if the water has ripples I think they detract.

 

[MrFotoFool]

They add to the images (which is usually the case).

 

[Turberticus]

IMO I think they can add interest to a photo of waterfowl that was taken from a high angle, well above the bird, almost as if you're looking down on it. As a general rule for wildlife, eye level photos are ideal, even for waterfowl. If you're unable to get that low, a reflection will take the attention away from the water that's in focus around the bird.

 

[Wink Jones]

I find them to be a great pleasure most of the time, as I try to get them. I had fun with this one. I was at Stanley Lake near Stanley, Idaho. It was ten in the morning and still not a puff of wind.

I ordered a nice 20 x 16 print for myself and was very upset with Costco for messing up my print with the junk in the sky. I came to my computer to see what it was supposed to look like, and found I was holding the picture upside down, the junk in the sky was the sunken "stuff" on the bottom of the lake...

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[Callie]

Larry
Many interesting and valid opinions on this subject. Not repeating some great statements above, my feel is always this: Does the images speak to you, does it invoke some feeling and can you get that across to your viewer? I have posted small series of images where the replies I get is totally different from my own feeling about the images. I may prefer say the 1st image, and others never mentions it but like other images better - I guess I try to say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the reflection either adds, take away of does nothing. However, your emotional interaction with or visual representation of the image is what makes it work for you. You are the only one to make that decision. I think you keep images because there is at least something in them that speaks to you, even if the raw image sucks a bit. I have 1000's such images.