You might remember the meaning of the character 影 with this easy mnemonic:
I hate the sun (日), so I tried to put a lid (亠) over my head, but it is so small (小) it can barely cover my mouth (口). The lid also has weird bristles (彡) all over it. I can't look like this in my wedding pictures.
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.