Reflections

F

FilmUnited

Guest
I have often wondered how to approach shots where we see both through a piece of glass and also the reflections that apprear on this glass. For example, we see a character looking out the window and clearly see a car pulling away in the reflection.

Is this done simply by finding the appropriate angle or is special glass often used? I began wondering about this after seeing the job Janusz Kaminski, ASC did with controlling reflections through glass in The Terminal. There is a scene in which Tom Hanks is considering a new suit, and as he is window shopping, we see a suit through the glass. When he approaches, we clearly see the reflection of his face atop the suit as he contemplates buying it.

In any case, let me know any advice you can offer as far as lighting, angles, etc.

Corey
 
It's mostly an issue of lighting the object to be reflected in the glass brightly enough to show-up well in the glass, and then consider that it's easier to see bright objects over dark backgrounds. In other words, if what's behind the glass is evenly bright, it is very hard to reflect something over that and have it show up, whereas if the background is very dark, reflections in the glass stand out more. This is why shooting in front of a big picture window in the daytime is generally not a problem with seeing lights and cameras, but at night, that window is like a mirror seeing everything in the room.

You may find that the object to be reflected has to be a stop or two brighter by incident meter to show up well in the glass. But in the end, you use a reflected meter (spot meter) to read how bright the reflection is in the glass to then adjust the brightness of the lighting on the subject.

You can make life easier on yourself by using partially mirrored glass instead of clear glass, but that can be expensive.

The other issue is the rule "angle of incidence equals angle of reflection."

And the other main problem is to brightly light the subject to be reflected but to keep light off of the camera and the background behind the camera IF you can't shoot at enough of an angle to not get the camera's reflection.
 
Mr. Mullen,

When I spot meter object that are being reflected, as you mentioned, I always worry about my reading. How do I know that I am getting the stop of the reflection and not what I am seeing through the glass?

But, this is probably because I am less comfortable with a spot meter in general. I understand that it is metering as if it was seeing 18% gray, but I am often unsure just how much to compensate based on the color of the object I metering. I usually set my stop with my indicent meter then use the spot to check what would blow out and what will fall black.

I have watched a lot of DPs meter, and they all seem to do it a different way. Obviously, there is a lot of intuition and there are some standard procedures, but could you discuss your personal method for determining the exposure of a shot?

Thanks,

Corey
 
"playing" with both reflection and backgroung can also be done with a polarizing filter, that may estinguish the reflections. One could imagine a reflection appear in the shot or disappear, why not ?

When you meter the reflected face, you actually meter both reflectance at the same spot : reflection + backgroung. You actually meter what is seeingable at the point. As David said, it's a matter of how dark or bright is the background. If it's bright, you measure more brightness at this point and will not be able to see the face as much as if it was dark.
 
A spot meter is the only accurate way to measure a reflection, but I have used other tricks. For example, if the camera has a video tap, if you balance the lighting of the reflection and the background so that they look balanced on the video tap -- which has awful exposure latitude -- it will definitely be balanced on film. Then, assuming the glass is clear, you can use an incident meter to read the objects behind the glass, assuming you can get your meter behind the glass and next to the objects. You can also use a digital still camera to check the balance between the reflection and the background.

I once saw the trick of using a pola to fade in or out a reflection in glass, in the movie "Murphy's Romance". A nice shot of a boy reflected in a store window crossing the street towards camera and then stepping through the glass door and into the room; the pola is rotated to then see the boy in the room through the glass. I stole this idea but I found that it only worked when the camera was at an EXACT angle to the glass, probably like a 45 degree angle. You can also do what "Body Heat" did for that shot where Kathleen Turner sits in a car and rolls up her window so that William Hurt can see his reflection in the glass wearing a new hat: they faded out the light on her behind the glass and faded up the light on him (again, that light was probably very bright to make a good reflection.)
 

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