THROUGH THE CRYSTAL BALL

Dan Mold shows you how to turn a landscape image on its head literally by encapsulating a scene within a glass sphere

In this project we’re taking you through the looking glass by showing you a fresh way to shoot landscapes. Many of us love to shoot outdoors, but there are only so many ways to shoot landscapes traditionally. However, with a clear glass sphere from a company such as Lensball, you can unlock creative new ways to shoot vistas.

Due to refraction, when you shoot an image through a glass ball, the landscape inside will appear upsidedown. You can choose to leave it as-is, flip the entire picture in Photoshop so that the sphere is the right way up (go to Image > Image Rotation > 180º), or select just the image inside the ball and rotate that by 180º so that both the ball and landscape behind it are in the correct orientation, which is what we’ve done for our image above.

The glass ball is the only special piece of kit you need for this technique; other than that you simply need a DSLR or mirrorless camera with a kit lens. You can use a tripod if you like, but this isn’t essential.