---
title: "How to add a mirror flip with Claude (tested prompt and ffmpeg command)"
description: "Everything in the shot swaps sides and any lettering reads backward, the way a front camera shows you yourself. Install one skill and ask Claude Code, or run the ffmpeg command we tested yourself."
url: https://www.recharm.com/effects/mirror-flip
---

# How to add a mirror flip with Claude

Everything in the shot swaps sides and any lettering reads backward, the way a front camera shows you yourself.

Made by the command on this page, from our own test clip.

## Get this effect

1. ### Switch to Code in your [Claude Desktop App](https://claude.com/download)

2. ### Install the skill (once)

   ```
   Install the Recharm video effects skill: download https://recharm-growth-staging.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/website/downloads/recharm-video-effects.zip and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills
   ```

3. ### Ask for the effect

   ```
   Add a mirror flip to input.mp4
   Flip: hflip
   ```

## Several videos, several effects, one ask

Put your clips in the folder, mention them with @, and ask for everything at once. Claude runs one tested script after another on each clip, then joins them.

Add a mirror flip to **@clip1.mp4**, put a sale badge on **@clip2.mp4**, give **@clip3.mp4** a VHS look, then join all three with crossfades.

## Settings you can change

Ask Claude to change any of these, or edit them at the top of the command.

| Setting | Default | What it does                                                              |
| ------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `FLIP`  | `hflip` | hflip mirrors left to right; vflip turns the picture upside down instead. |

## Without the skill

Don’t want to install the skill? Paste this prompt into Claude Code and Claude writes the command itself.

```
Mirror input.mp4 left to right for its whole length, like a front-camera selfie: column x of every frame moves to column (width - 1 - x), with nothing flipped upside down, cropped, scaled or recolored. Keep the size (540x960), 30fps and the full 6 seconds, and keep the audio as it is (don't reverse or change it). There's no text to draw, but if you add any, draw it with Pillow, not ffmpeg's drawtext. Use ffmpeg, encode H.264 yuv420p and save it as output.mp4.
```

## Run it without Claude

This is the exact command we tested. Save it as `mirror-flip.sh` and run:

```
sh mirror-flip.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
```

```
#!/bin/sh
# Mirror flip: the whole picture turns left to right, like a front-camera selfie; the sound stays as it is.
# Usage: sh mirror-flip.sh input.mp4 output.mp4
set -e
IN="$1"; OUT="$2"
FLIP=hflip   # hflip mirrors left to right; vflip turns it upside down

ffmpeg -y -i "$IN" -vf "$FLIP,fps=30" -c:v libx264 -crf 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a copy "$OUT"
```

## More layouts and reframing

- [Background replacement **Background replacement**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/background-replacement)
- [Binocular view **Binocular view**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/binocular-view)
- [Blur region **Blur region**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/blur-region)
- [Cinematic bars **Cinematic bars**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/cinematic-bars)
- [Comic panel layout **Comic panel layout**](https://www.recharm.com/effects/comic-panel-layout)

## Find 3x _winning ads_

Recharm cuts your ad footage into tagged, searchable clips: hooks, testimonials, product shots. Find the shots that win, add the effect with Claude, and ship 3x more ad edits.

[Start 14-day free trial](https://www.recharm.com/get-started)