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Lights, Reflections, and Real Life

whispers65whispers65 Posts: 1,034
edited November 2025 in The Commons

Ok so I've been working to get better at lighting, reflections, and all of that.  I had a pool scene, and below the water it showed the person and also a flipped mirror image of the person above it, so I get it.  It's all about angles and such.

Then real life happened today and I guess I only noticed because I've been working with daz a lot lately.

From the picture, I am looking toward the stop sign which is about 40 feet away.  The wagon in front of me is like 5 feet away.  There is a car, broken down, that is some 10 feet behind me.  My shadow is behind me.  The sun is on the right in front of me.  okay so far nothing out of the norm.  I don't know what caught my eye but I looked to the stop sign.  Also, I wear glasses.  I am like 20/200 without them, and can't see great with them.  Anyway, something caught my eye and I saw my reflection or silouette on the stop sign. I stopped. I moved to the left, to the right, and up and down and it was clearly my head.  The question was how?  I'm literally almost 40 feet away from the sign and everything is in front of me.  I thought about my car behind me.  later when my sister got home she stood and could see a faint light reflecting on the stop sign so she could see what I was talking about except for our reflections. but when I got in front of the car to try to block the reflection, nothing happened so it's not the car.  I thought I was making progress on all of this reflection stuff but this throws me lol.

Added:  Not sure why my picture uploaded landscape. Also, if you zoom in on the stop sign you can kind of see that the left side is a little lighter and reflective.

20251121_135439.jpg
4080 x 3060 - 7M
Post edited by whispers65 on

Comments

  • backgroundbackground Posts: 623

    Maybe the stop sign has some super reflective surface, so that it reflects vehicle headlights and is therefore visible in darkness. I doesn't appear to have a lamp fitted to illuminate it.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 108,990

    background said:

    Maybe the stop sign has some super reflective surface, so that it reflects vehicle headlights and is therefore visible in darkness. I doesn't appear to have a lamp fitted to illuminate it.

    Yes, they often have a special surfae that rflects light back at the source https://startsafety.uk/blogs/blog/how-do-reflective-road-signs-work

  • whispers65whispers65 Posts: 1,034

    background said:

    Maybe the stop sign has some super reflective surface, so that it reflects vehicle headlights and is therefore visible in darkness. I doesn't appear to have a lamp fitted to illuminate it.

    I think they do have special surfaces.  I'm just surprised because of the distance.  But then again, I'm not sure how far back something is and still be reflected. 

  • richardandtracyrichardandtracy Posts: 7,345
    Reflections are light, just as the original rays are. The reflection can go as far as light can go. Regards, Richard.
  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,617

    I would go with your idea of a strong reflection flaring off the car behind you casting your shadow onto the sign.

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