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I was in one of those mirror mazes where they have massive mirrors in a maze structure. However, these mirrors were lined with LED light strips, which were straight, because they were on the edge of the perfect rectangle mirrors. However when I took the picture, the LED strips in the farther away reflections (it was an infinite loop situation, where the light reflects of two or more mirrors) appeared bent, or wobbly:

Wobbly Reflections

I was wondering why this was happening?

I thought it could have been caused by a time delay between where the shutter was at one point, and where the light was (in terms of reflecting), but that's probably wrong.

Any Ideas? I was shooting at Exposure 1/100, f/5.6, ISO 1600 on an [old] Pentax K-r

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm not seeing the image, not sure if that is the case for others. I've got some ideas but I would need to see it to be sure. \$\endgroup\$
    – James Snell
    Commented May 28, 2017 at 10:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ I edited the image in a couple of hours ago, but it's been edited back out again.. I don't have enough reputation on this particular part of Stack Exchange to allow my own edits, they need approval, so I'll try again & see if someone approves it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Tetsujin
    Commented May 28, 2017 at 10:09

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I bet the mirrors are made of cheap material and are not flat. Thus, the lines are distorted, and more so the more a particular image is reflected.

The mix of straight and curved lines makes some kind of rolling shutter effect not a likely explanation.

This is not an effect related to photography per se. It was that way to the naked eye, too. You may just have been to busy to notice.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ This also explains why the "further away" LEDs get more crooked and bendy — multiple reflections through the non-flat mirrors get compounded, amplifying the effect. \$\endgroup\$
    – scottbb ♦
    Commented May 28, 2017 at 12:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm pretty sure that the mirrors were flat; I could definitely not see this bendy effect with my eye.. This would make sense though, and if no other explanations come through that seem more likely then this is probably the most likely. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ember
    Commented May 28, 2017 at 22:18

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