When rendering a building with a large expanse of water in front of it, the classic approach is to include the reflection, along with the whole building, to create a symmetrical rendering. For a perfect reflection you’ll need water to be as still as possible, so this technique won’t work on water with large bump maps, or noise. That said, you can also look for much smaller areas of water that reflect just a small detail of the building to add foreground interest to your rendering. On rainy days renders, you can even look out for reflections in puddles or rain-soaked streets. This technique is particularly good at night, when you can include bright lights in the reflection.
With reflections, it pays to explore lots of different camera views – don’t just render the first composition that presents itself. An inch to the left or right, or up or down, can make a big difference to how a reflection fits in a pond or puddle.
