Reflectors add more light to a photographic subject.
Photography literally mean "writing with light." Good lighting is essential in photography, but achieving good light doesn't always require extra lights, just a reflector. A light reflector can be anything that is white or silver and reflects light. White paper, tinfoil, foam board and mirrors can work just as well as a professional grade reflector.
Instructions
1. Reflect light onto your photography subject's face with a reflector if you are shooting on a sunny day around noon. Shooting pictures in the middle of the day is notoriously troublesome for photographers. The sun shines down from directly overhead, causing the subject's hair to be overly bright and the brow bone to cast a shadow over the eyes. Using a reflector to bounce sunlight onto the face fills in unwanted shadows and reduces the unpleasant contrast between the subject's hair and eyes.
2. Place a reflector under a subject who is being lit with a strobe light. Make sure the reflector is angled so that it catches the light of the strobe and bounces upward towards the subject's face. The reflector will act as a "fill" light, reducing shadow caused by the strobe but not overpowering the light so much that the picture's depth is lost.
3. Diffuse strobe lighting by bouncing it off of a reflector. Hold the reflector toward your subject and place your strobe between the reflector and the subject. Aim the strobe away from the subject and towards the reflector. The reflector will enlarge the strobe's light and give it a softer feel on the subject.
4. Place a white reflector behind your subject to create a white background for mug shots. Make sure that the camera is zoomed in close to the subject's face and that the white of the reflector is filling the entire background.
5. Reflect light onto the side of your subject's face if you are shooting on an overcast day. The small addition of light will add a subtle but powerful sense of depth to the subject. Make sure that your reflector does not appear in the shot.
Tags: subject face, Make sure, your subject, light onto, Make sure that, Reflect light