We don’t like Photoshop. Honestly, we don’t like it and we are not good at it. It’s not about efficiency. Fortunately efficiency doesn’t play any significant role in mmiri. It’s about satisfaction. Using too much editing would steal a joy of creation.
Why do everything in the camera?
For us, the most essential software is Capture One. It’s the application connected to our camera during a photoshoot, allowing for tethered shooting (where images appear instantly on our laptop) and RAW editing (the format everybody with a big cameras prefers to justify the big camera ).
Modern versions of Capture One are actually quite powerful for editing too. While not as feature-rich as Photoshop, this limitation can be a good thing. It encourages us to capture as much as possible directly in the camera. There’s a great satisfaction in exporting a final image straight from Capture One with no extra processing needed. That feeling makes it worthwhile to focus on getting everything right on set during the photoshoot, rather than relying on Photoshop later.
Effect
So today, we want to share how we created the “liquid mirror” effect in our “Looking at Yourself” photo without using Photoshop or other digital tricks. (We won’t even get into AI – everyone’s talking about that already!).
The first key concept here is cohesion. It truly feels like magic; it’s surprising how much water you can pour onto a flat glass surface before it spills over. Often, we start by preparing one full glass of water, only to find we need to fetch several more to cover the entire mirror surface.
To effectively use cohesion, the mirror needs to be placed perfectly horizontally. The most important part here is to make the viewer believe, that the side, that points to the bottom for him is really the bottom, and the side that points to the top, points really to the sky. We achieve this sense of realism using black fabrics to create shadows on one side, and several diffuser panels with lights behind them to simulate light coming naturally from the other directions.
Next, we need to secure our flower. We do this using thin black threads, positioning them carefully so they won’t need to be edited out later in Photoshop.
In the end, the only part of the image that might require a little retouching is how the mirror itself is supported – it’s usually too heavy to be held just by threads. However, this minor adjustment is typically small enough to be handled directly within Capture One.
Final result
That’s it! Working this way allows us to avoid using Photoshop for about two-thirds of our final images.
