How to create a reflection with Superimpose

Welcome to another iPhone photo editing tutorial. This time I‘ll show how you can create, enhance, modify, or fake if you prefer a reflection using SuperimposeX app.

For this tutorial, I‘ll use a photo of the famous Belvedere Palace in Vienna that I shoot with iPhone 11 Pro using iPhone 11 night mode camera.

As you can see, there is already a reflection in this photo. It comes from an artificial lake in front of the castle. But I don‘t like it. There were some minor waves from the wind in some areas of the water resulting in an inhomogeneous reflection.

Yes, call me picky, but I wanted to fix that, and I thought my workflow for this kind of post-processing could be useful for some of my readers.

For this tutorial, we‘ll use the SuperimposeX app.

About SuperimposeX App

Superimpose app is another one of my recommended iPhone photo editing apps I‘ve been using for years. As with all the others, it gets updated regularly.

It‘s an app that basically allows you to do photo compositions by layering multiple photos and applying adjustments and effects to them. It works quite similar to Photoshop or even Pixelmator. However, as Photoshop is still not available for iPad and Pixelmator for iOS does not have a few of the adjustments we need, we‘re going to use SuperimposeX.

Let‘s go.

Creating a reflection from a single photo

First, we have to open the photo in SuperimposeX:

• Open SuperimposeX

• At the bottom of the screen, tap New Session

• Select the photo you want to open for editing

Once you‘ve opened the photo in SuperimposeX, we need to duplicate this layer. The new duplicated layer will act as the reflection. But first, we need to make the layers pane visible:

• Tap the layer icon in the upper right corner of the screen. It‘s the rightmost icon that looks like a stack of papers.

Now, let‘s duplicate the layer of the photo we just added:

• Tap and hold the image you’ve just opened in the layer pane. A menu will display.
• In the menu, tap duplicate layer. Now you have two layers of the same image.

Creating a mask

With the layer pane still open, I hide the second layer. You don't need to do this, but it helps me with creating the mask. To hide the second layer:

• Tap the second layer again. Just as previously, a menu will pop up. Tap Hide Layer

Now that you've hidden the layer, the eye icon in the lower right corner looks empty.

By creating a mask, we remove part of a layer, and the underplaying layer will be visible.

SuperimposeX has a lot of tools that help you creating a mask. Those tools range from a simple brush to different magic selection tools. For this photo, a simple brush is sufficient.

• Tap Mask in the middle of the toolbar at the bottom of the screen
• In a second toolbar at the bottom of the screen, several tools appear. Tap the rightmost icon labeled Mask Tool
• Select the masking tool you want to use. For this photo, we‘ll use the brush tool.

Note that if you use the brush tool for masking, you can adjust its size and feathering by tapping Settings right near the mask tool in the second lower toolbar. In this scenario, I'll stick with the default settings.

Now we paint over the area that contains the mirror effect. This will effectively remove this part of the photo. Don‘t worry if you don‘t get the perfect selection. In the lower right corner is a small icon that allows you to toggle between brush and eraser mode.

• By default, you‘re in brush mode, which is indicated by a "+" and the label Erase This means you‘re painting the mask effectively removing pixels from the photo.
• In Restore mode, indicted by a "-," you‘re restoring the original photo.

Creating the reflection

To create the reflection, we‘re going to use the duplicated layer that we created at the beginning. But first, we need to make the layer visible again:

• Tap the layer icon in the upper right corner of the screen again
• Select the second layer.

To create the reflection, let‘s flip the photo vertically to create the reflection:

• Tap Transform in the lower toolbar
• Several transformations options appear right above. Tap the icon labeled Flip V

Using the horizontal or vertical flipping mode works excellent for reflections that are, well, horizontal or vertical. But if you need to create a reflection in any other direction, like diagonal, just rotate the image using one of the blue points with the curved arrow inside.

Now that we have created the reflection, we need to move it into place. While still in transform mode, drag the image straight down until the flipped layer is visible as a reflection.

Adjusting the reflection

Next, we will apply some adjustments to the reflection. To make it more clear that this is a reflection in the water, we‘ll do two things:

• Reduce the exposure and brightness a bit to make it darker
• Apply a minimal blur effect

To reduce the exposure and brightness:

• Tap Filter in the toolbar at the bottom
• Then tap Basic. A pane appears where you can adjust basic settings like exposure, brightness, and contrast. For this shot, I reduced exposure and brightness a bit.

Don't be confused by this blue "X" that displayed over the icon. It's only visible once you've created and adjustment and allows you to remove it.

Now let‘s create a slight blur effect to emphasize that this is a reflection in the water. Unless the water is perfectly calm, reflections are usually a bit blurry. So that‘s why we‘re doing this.

• In the toolbar at the bottom of the screen tap the rightmost icon labeled Editor
• In the toolbar above, tap Effects. The toolbar will expand and display a few effect adjustments.
• From the effects adjustments, tap Focus

Now, you‘ll see a line with a blue dragging point. Drag it down, so it covers and blurs the entire reflection. Now, with the button Amount enabled, you can drag the slider until you get the perfect blur effect.

Once you're done and satisfied, tap the checkmark in the upper right corner of the screen.

Further editing the photo in Adobe Lightroom Mobile

Now you maybe think about sharing the photo right from SuperimposeX to Adobe Lightroom Mobile. Though it will work, you‘ll lose all EXIF and meta information. So I strongly advise against doing this.

Instead, save the photo to the camera roll and import it into Lightroom Mobile from there.

Summary

With SuperimposeX, you can easily create stunning photo compositions by simply layering photos on top of each other.

Using a variety of filters and tools, you can apply e.g., focus filters, motion blue filters, and even distort layers.

I've been using SuperimposeX, and it's predecessor Superimpose for years. So far, the app has been continuously updated and also gets new features every now and then. To learn more, head over to the SuperimposeX review I've written.