Can a reflection be too reflective?

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Can a reflection be too reflective?

I know that is a weird question, but I am struggling with this image and keep flipping from it's "Gobsmacking" to "Meh" and back again. And I am sure it all has to do with it being, nothing but a super wide multi shot pano reflection.

So what say you, "Gobsmacking" or "Meh" ?

Dave

[MattBurt]

Probably in the middle for me. I've had similar conditions before and it seemed like it was going to be a home run but then it just wasn't. Perfect reflections almost look manufactured to me, even if they are completely natural. Maybe I'm just jaded. It's a nice image but I wouldn't use the term "Gobsmacking". But my gob maybe be harder to smack than most.

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Probably in the middle for me. I've had similar conditions before and it seemed like it was going to be a home run but then it just wasn't. Perfect reflections almost look manufactured to me, even if they are completely natural. Maybe I'm just jaded. It's a nice image but I wouldn't use the term "Gobsmacking". But my gob maybe be harder to smack than most.

I totally agree Matt and I think you have absolutely nailed in several different ways there. As I do have to agree after reading your reply, that it does indeed look a bit 'false' like it could be one of those hyper real, made up photoshopped types of image and, maybe I am also getting a bit too jaded these days, for my gob to so easily smacked by such things.

Dave

[MattBurt]

I think having some framing and/or foreground around the water can help it feel more natural but obviously that's not always possible.
Or sometimes I toss a rock in for some nice ripples to break it up a little.

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Or sometimes I toss a rock in for some nice ripples to break it up a little.

  Heck no, I could never disturb a reflection. Even if it makes the view look so over reflective and false, that I know I will never be able to get anything decent out of it photographically, it is still a reflection and just too awesome a thing to stand and gawp at.

So no, I could never bring myself to do anything to disturb a reflection.

Dave

[MattBurt]

I wouldn't do it if anyone else was there enjoying it but I can't say it's never happened.
To me a reflection is a fleeting thing like a snowflake. Here and gone in a flash but also a renewable resource.

[nirpat89]

Off-centering a little might have helped a bit.  I would have included more of the reflection and cut some of the top to break the monotony.  But it's a tough one.

:Niranjan. 

[Paulo Bizarro]

I like it a lot, finding the conditions for this symmetry is not an easy task.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I would have waited (and waited and waited...) for a gentle breeze to add some gentle ripples to the water.

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

I would have waited (and waited and waited...) for a gentle breeze to add some gentle ripples to the water.

Heck no Eric, as I said earlier, I could never bring myself to disturb a perfect reflection. But, a nice wild salmon leaping up out of the loch to catch a passing mayfly or something, now that would have been something worth seeing and an amazing thing to capture and would probably be hanging on my wall right now if it had

Dave

[Cornfield]

The edges of the sky reflection and the tops of the mountains looks odd with lighter tones.

[Mark Nadler]

If the point of the image is the reflection then complaining about too much reflection does not make sense.  If the reflection is supposed to complement other features of the image then too much reflection becomes a possibility.  Dave, what was your intent?

Mark

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

The edges of the sky reflection and the tops of the mountains looks odd with lighter tones.

Hi Cornfield,

I think that is simply the effect of the reflection, whereby the water adds a little bit of contrast (a bit like adding a slight polarising effect), so that the detail in the reflections, can often seem more contrasty and slightly darker.

Dave

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

If the point of the image is the reflection then complaining about too much reflection does not make sense.  If the reflection is supposed to complement other features of the image then too much reflection becomes a possibility.  Dave, what was your intent?

Mark

Hi Mark,

Yes the intent was all about the reflection and so I was very happy to both see it and shoot it. But I have found, that sometimes the more perfect the reflection is, as simply being a mirror image of the top half of the shot, how it can start to make the image appear to look somewhat unrealistic and unnaturally perfect - if you know what I mean?

So yes I agree with you Mark and think that you have now fully answered my question, as I can now see that when I was shooting it, I had my priorities all upside down and should have framed it, so that the reflection acted merely as a visual compliment to the rest of the scene, rather than being the most dominant object within it.

Thanks 

Dave