Smart Steps to Taking a Good Mirror Photo

Chronicled by Afronuts @ Thursday, March 28, 2013

All over the internet pictures of people taking their photographs before bathroom or bedroom mirrors are a common thing to see. By simply googling ‘taking photo by mirror’ you’ll get tons and tons of photos of people snapping before a mirror, some decent and cute, others wild, insane or dirty; it all depends on each person’s objective for taking the photo.

But I’ve come to notice that everybody seems top always take the photo the same way; most don’t even think of how they could do it without letting the device used for snapping show in the picture. It’s become a common thing to just hold your camera, phone or ipad (rare case) before the mirror and snap with it also showing. 

However, there’s a smart way of taking the picture without letting the snapping device show. I got Tobi, a co-worker who’s also a blogger to model for me and demonstrate the proper way to use a mirror to snap your picture without the device showing.

The Usual Way

Usually when people want to take their photos, they hold the camera the way Tobi is holding it - with the camera lens facing the mirror so that they can view themselves on the screen. The problem with this is that your device will be in view and your picture composition will end up giving away the fact that you used a mirror to take the picture. Devices such as some phones and digital cameras that have flash even make the matter worse because the flash will appear in the mirror like the picture of the guy in glasses in the collage above.

The Smart Way

Now if Tobi held the camera differently in the opposite direction – that is by turning the lens of the camera to face her so that the screen faces the mirror, she can now monitor her pose on the screen as reflected on the mirror and take her photo. If her device has a flash, it will bounce on her instead of bouncing on the mirror. This will make the picture even clearer as the flash is put to its actual use.

Enjoy snapping away!