STE P BY STE P / Build your composite

1 Use a wireless release We need our camera to stay in a fixed position throughout while we move the mirror, so a tripod is essential. A wireless release lets us fire the shutter from a distance, so we can quickly fire and move. Our Nikon D800 is in Aperture Priority mode at f/11, ISO100. 2 Move the mirror We start with the mirror in the bottom left corner then move it along the bottom of the frame, occasionally checking the viewfinder to gauge the position. We take a shot in each position using the wireless shutter release, then gradually move backwards, row by row.

3 Make a hole Now we grab a spade and dig a shallow hole wide enough to hold our bucket, in the place where we’d like our subject to stand. Then we place it in the hole and fill it with water. This helps to sell the surreal effect, as our lone figure appears to be stepping into one of our numerous reflected pools. 4 Capture reflections Once we settle upon a suitable pose we need our subject to stay perfectly still while we grab a few more frames of the mirror – this time placed in various positions in front of him in order to capture parts of his reflected body. Once done, we’re ready to piece together all our frames in Photoshop. 5 Run the action Save your images to a folder as JPEGs. Choose one image to use as a base. Cut and paste it outside the folder then open it in Photoshop. Next drag the supplied ‘load_mirrors’ action into Photoshop to load it, then go to File>Automate>Batch. In the settings, find the action, direct the command to the folder and hit OK. 6 Piece it together The images will open one by one, pausing to let you crop into the important parts before copying and pasting into the base image. If your version of Photoshop doesn’t support the action you’ll need to use File>Scripts>Load Files Into Stack, or open each image manually before cutting and pasting the mirrors. 7 Tweak the positions Once the action has worked through your entire set of images, drag the layer with the person to the top of the stack and hide it. Select the Move tool. Tick ‘AutoSelect’ and ‘Show Transform Controls’, then tidy up the positioning of the mirrors. You might need to erase any overlapping parts – if so, hit E for the Eraser tool. 8 Select the subject Now reveal the layer with your subject on. Select the Quick Selection tool from the Tools panel and paint to select the subject and sky (Alt-paint to subtract if it goes wrong), then go to Select>Select and Mask. Increase the Radius and paint over tricky parts, like hands, with the Refine brush. Set Output to Layer Mask and hit OK.

9 Duplicate the mirrors Next we need to add more mirrors in the background of the scene. Select the Move tool, hold Alt and drag mirrors from the foreground to make quick copies, then resize to make them fit the perspective of the scene. Continue until the background looks right. 10 Make the mist Make a new layer called ‘mist’ at the top of the stack. Press D, then go to Filter>Render>Clouds. In the Layers panel, change the blending mode to Screen, then Filter> Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a high value. Add a layer mask and paint black to restrict mist to the background. 11 Add the backdrop Add more mist layers to build up the effect. Open the mountain backdrop and copy in. Drag it below the mist layer, then add a layer mask and paint with black to blend it in with the rest of the scene. Lastly, merge with Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E and make any tonal changes.