Face to Face: Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Photographing People

195



37



196 

Working with mirrors is fun. By simply photo-

graphing a person with his or her reflection, you

can create an interesting, artistic, and creative im-

age, one that goes beyond a simple snapshot.

For the above photograph, which I took in Fort

Worth, Texas, I had the woman look into the mir-

ror and at a cowboy whom I had asked to pose

in the doorway. Looking at the picture, you may

wonder what the cowboy is doing in the door-

way. As such, even though the cowboy is small

in the scene, he plays an important role in telling

the story behind this picture. My point: the other

elements that are reflected in the mirror can add

interest to (or detract from) the message of your

picture.

One of the keys to this picture, and to all of the

remaining pictures in this lesson, is the lighting.

I bounced my on-camera flash off the ceiling to

light the woman softly and evenly. I turned off all

the other lights in the room and then opened all

the shades in the room behind the cowboy to cre-

ate his silhouette.

 197

When you plan to work with mirrors, be prepared

for tricky and low lighting situations and condi-

tions. Be prepared with a flash and a reflector.

Also be prepared with a wide-angle zoom lens,

because you’ll most likely be working in close

quarters. Finally, if you shoot at a 45-degree angle,

you and your gear will not be in the frame.

Another important key to mirror photography is

to make sure you are not in the picture yourself.

That usually means photographing the subject’s

reflection in the mirror at a 45-degree angle. Be-

fore I took this picture in a hat shop in Panama, I

had the woman adjust the mirror so that her face

filled the mirror and so that I could not be seen.

Getting back to lighting for a moment, this was

a tricky shot to light. A large window to the girl’s

right illuminated the scene. That created a shad-

ow on the right side of the man’s face. To fill in the

shadow, I had a friend hold a reflector behind the

mirror to bounce light onto the man’s face to even

out the exposure.

198 

Working with mirrors has another advantage: you

can see the front and back of a subject in the same

photograph. You may not get to Mongolia to take a

picture such as this one of a stage performer in his

dressing room, but you may have an opportunity

to photograph a bride, who would love to see her

smile and the back of her veil in a photograph.