Modern bathrooms are beautiful, but have you tried to photograph one? The glass and mirrors and sleek surfaces can be a nightmare of reflections and glare! Thankfully, I have a great tip to help you eliminate glare or reflections and make those showers pop in your bathroom photos. It involves taking one or two additional frames to blend in Photoshop later. Let’s break it down!
Let’s use the photo above as an example.
This bathroom was a bit tight, so there wasn’t much room to move around and find different angles for the light to avoid reflections. You can see in the original base layer that there’s a lot of glare and reflection, especially in the top and right of the shower door. The big tip to remember is that you want to get a frame or two with the light INSIDE the shower. By lighting up the shower from the inside, you’re eliminating any possibility of a reflection, adding definition to the shower area, and creating a touch of dramatic lighting that will stand out.
So I started with the base photo above, but then took two additional photos to light up the inside of the shower - one for the right side of the shower and one for the left side. I did this in two photos because the room was really small and I could get it all without being in the way. Below are the two shots that I took specifically for the shower interior. (Don’t mind the horrific angle that is showing off my belly in its worst light! Ha!) You’ll also see a bright shot that is taken to finish off my blending layers - this one is to help fill in any dark shadows, most likely around the floor area and around the toilet.
Once you blend them together, you’ll get a final photo that feels well-lit, even, and free from reflections! Ready to see the final photo?
Photo On Left:
Ambient light only. You can see the bright reflection of the window in the shower glass. It’s distracting and blocking the Turkish towel that hangs in the shower.
Photo On Right:
Here, we brought down the exposure so the overall photo is darker (you can tell by the doors at left and by the window view) and then we stepped into the shower with a strobe to light from the inside. You can see the reflection in the glass is much lower and you can now see detail in the Turkish towel that hangs. If I would have left it brighter, the detail in that area with a reflection would still be lost and too bright. By darkening the shot, we bring back the detail, but using the light that we want.
Final photo! You do still have a slight reflection, but I’m okay with that because it feels natural. Also, you still have detail of the towel hanging behind that reflection, so the reflection isn’t taking away any detail from the photo. It feels natural, but still controlled.
So next time you’re photographing a bathroom that has some nasty reflections, go ahead and jump in that shower!
xo,
Natalia