How to create a luxe underwater reflection effect for product photography

Nothing channels those fresh summer feels faster than adding beach-inspired water effect to your image. This technique is abstractly beautiful and adds meaningful context to your product photography.

Achieving a reflection of rippling water is easier than you might think and incorporates our favourite photography prop of the moment - the acrylic tray! Find out how you can get this luxe looking effect and add some serious summer vibes to your next shoot.

What you’ll need to get started

• Acrylic tray (you can also use a glass baking dish or transparent document tray)
• Plain background
• Product or subject matter
• Light from the sun or artificial light
• Water, of course!

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Creating the setup and taking the shot

1. Place your product on the plain background
2. Put the transparent tray on an elevated position under direct light or the sun
3. Angle the tray properly so the shadow falls on the product
4. Put water on the tray
5. Continuously pour the water on the tray and just keep taking photos!

Three bonus tips

• To achieve a good effect with the shadows you'll need to use harsh light like full sun or bright artificial light.
• When filling up the tray with water, we found that filling it up to the edge of the tray had the best effect while continuing to pour onto the tray had a nice and unique underwater reflection effect.
• Try and avoid too much water splashing around in your tray, otherwise in post-processing you may need to edit out small drops of water that fall onto your backdrop.