Mirrors and Macro

[Ed Watkins]

Hi,

I've got a question about mirrors.
Just doing some mental exercise and was wondering If it was possible to shoot a macro subject (like a bug) reflected through a mirror? What would the restrictions/limitations be?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[Richard Foster]

You need a high quality front surface mirror so you do not get the second reflection from the glass surface in a conventional back coated mirror which shows up as a ghost image. A good quality front surface mirror is polished to fine tolerances and creates a near perfect reflection.

 

[Ed Watkins]

You need a high quality front surface mirror so you do not get the second reflection from the glass surface in a conventional back coated mirror which shows up as a ghost image. A good quality front surface mirror is polished to fine tolerances and creates a near perfect reflection.

Great thanks for the info!

 

[Michael Hastings]

Hi,

I've got a question about mirrors.
Just doing some mental exercise and was wondering If it was possible to shoot a macro subject (like a bug) reflected through a mirror? What would the restrictions/limitations be?

Thanks for any feedback.

just out of curiosity what is the advantage?

 

[Ed Watkins]

just out of curiosity what is the advantage?

Well actually I was thinking of the process of focus stacking. That is taking multiple frames of an image at different focal lengths, stacking them together, and then using an algorithm to combine the sharpest areas of each image.

It works great for micro/macro still photography but doesn't work for moving images due to temporal displacement.

So... I was thinking if you use a beam splitter and a couple of cameras you could focus stack two video images.

It might be useful for extreme macro, and forced perspective, but I'm not sure the loss of light through the splitter wouldn't negate the advantage of the stacked Depth of field.

Any thoughts?