The picture on the left will give you some idea of what my device looks like. The aim of it is to find a way that brings distant subjects (your model) and the background (object, print or best of all transparency) into focus at the same time. This is done by preparing the mirror and placing it at 45 degrees close to the camera lens front. The inset shows roughly the sort of shape you should aim at when removing the silvering from its centre. The condenser or large magnifying glass is used as a sort of close-up lens to focus on the background object. I fix this on the side of my plywood tunnel. The camera can then see your subject through the clear part of the mirror and the background transparency or whatever is reflected in the remaining parts. It is also brought into focus by this extra lens
The centre of the diagram shows the arrangement I use to photograph the model top right. The frame, to which I attach my background transparency, slides on the rods so that it can be brought into focus. This is easily done manually so you do not need a complicated mechanism. You do this once your camera has focused on the model. It helps if your camera is fixed to the tunnel and then the whole unit can be mounted on a tripod. The last thing you need is for everything to get out of line as you press the shutter.

The bottom shows the set-up diagrammatically. It is important to put the mirror as close as possible to your camera lens so that it is well out of focus. The large lens should be near the mirror as well, in order to keep the size of it down. I put a piece of translucent plastic behind the transparency and light it with a free standing lamp. This way it is easy to adjust the exposure by varying the lamp to transparency distance until you get it right.

These four pictures were all taken within a few minutes of each other. They show how the device can work in practise. I used the same background throughout only varying its position slightly in the sliding transparency holder. The background is in fact a close up shot of a pocket watch movement. The aberrations produced by the condenser lens used as part of the device have added their own bit of fantasy.

So you see, once the shot is set up, unlike some other methods you can use for these sorts of effects, you can produce the finished result in-camera time after time. This, if nothing else, keeps everybody happy as they can see what they are getting immediately.

Here are more pictures produced using this device. Starting top left, this image uses a transparency of a piece of texture plastic as the background. The clear area of the mirror was small and the edges were more defined. I later found it better to increase the areas of the mirror that should remain clear in order to spread the effect more widely. That is when it became more of the sunburst shape that was illustrated earlier.
In the image (top right) the background is a transparency of water. Here the background and the model images are more integrated. The water image was a black and white shot toned blue.
The next image (bottom right) uses a background shot of mirror tiles with broken glass and water drops lying on their surface. The colours were added by half covering some of the lights with red and blue gels.
The last image (bottom left) was made using an abstract transparency as a background shot. It was of strands of glue stretched across a small cardboard frame and lit with coloured lights.
In all these photographs I sat my subject against a dark background and lit them normally. I then used an extra lamp to light the chosen background transparency. Once a balance is obtained between the light on the transparency and the lighting on your model the actual business of shooting a range of different effects is both easy and quick.