Reflectors: The Other Way to Light

When photographing people during daylight in the great outdoors, it's important to remember that those people you're photographing aren't two-dimensional, cardboard, stand-ups. That means various parts of their faces and bodies will produce shadows.

Shadows, of course, can be very cool and are often effective for producing mood, showcasing a style, and more. Some photographers have built their entire portfolios on creative use of shadow. Often, though, especially when shooting people, shadows aren't always what you're looking for, especially when the work is more of a commercial nature. So, in order to reduce unwanted shadows you need to provide fill light, i.e., light that fills in the shadows. (Duh.)

One of my favorite blogs, David Hobby's wildly popular Strobist is dedicated to using small, inexpensive, off-camera strobes. There's more than a few articles there that talk about using these small, highly-portable lights during daylight conditions and, I might add, using them to great effect: As mainlights, as fill lights, as accent lights. Hobby, in many ways, has had a big impact on photographers, new and used. The term, "Photo Hobbyist" has taken on a whole new meaning. He and his blog have almost singlehandedly raised the artificial-lighting consciousness of a new generation of photographers, especially those who are new-ish to the craft and who use the web to learn and refine their skills.

I'm confident David doesn't dismiss the use of reflectors (to bounce sunlight) in favor of ALWAYS using small, portable strobes. His blog, however, has created something of group-style amongst many of his fans. As an example, if you peruse the Strobist Flickr site and search out the many images where strobes were used to overcome daylight, you'll see a lighting style that is often dramatic, effective, and memorable but, in some ways, is already becoming repetitive to see.

I'm not ashamed to say that, in many ways, I'm an old school shooter. That doesn't mean I prefer to shoot the way photographers of yore shot their stuff or that my work looks like it was captured 20, 30, or 50 years ago. Leastwise, I don't think it does. Instead, it means I embrace many of the basics, the tried-and-true stuff, when it comes to photography and especially when it comes to lighting. New approaches to lighting are great but, sometimes, the classic styles are just as effective.

One of the old-school ideologies I subscribe to is the less is more way of doing things. Included in those less is more lighting techniques is the simple, low-tech, reflector. In fact, whenever I can get away with simply using a reflector to finish off what the sun and the ambient are already providing, I'll go that way rather than depending on using strobes. Reflectors, of course, are only effective when there's suitable light to reflect or bounce. (Duh again.) And yeah, I'm still talking about sunlight, not artificial light.

There are many types of reflectors and I've probably used them all. Some of them are a bit pricey and some are quite cheap. The best reflector for the job is what I try to use, even if it's a piece of white styrofoam. I've used white reflectors, gold reflectors, silver reflectors, and even black reflectors. I've used reflectors made of paper, fabric, metal, and glass. I've used reflectors for fill, for highlights, and for accents. I've used single reflectors and multiple reflectors. Sure, there were many times I could have gone the Strobist route or even the expensive packs-and-heads route... and I have! But there's plenty of times, for one reason or another, I opted for using reflectors.

The image at the top is from a fashion shoot last spring. It was lit with the sun and two reflectors. That's it. No strobes, either of the Strobist variety or the expensive variety. Just a couple of reflectors.

Here's another (below) from the same shoot. We were shooting at a bus-stop near a train station. The sun was low in the sky and behind the bus stop. (Not Golden Hour low, but still, late-ish in the afternoon low.) A couple of reflectors, artfully wielded by assistants, were all that was necessary to bring a nice glow to our models and to fill the unwanted shadows. As I recall, I chose gold reflectors for the image at the top and silver for image below.

Sorry about the models being clothed. It was a fashion shoot after all. Also, these pics were the first ones I came across while searching my hard-drives for images that illustrate what I'm writing about. Models are Faye at the top and, uhhh... Damn! I forget the pretty young lady's name at the bottom. My bad! MUA/Hair by Jennifer Jackson.