My answer is always the same….NONE! I use natural reflectors that are in the area. All the shots in this post are straight out of the camera with no retouching, so that you can see exactly what I am talking about. They were shot with a Nikon D3 set to vivid and processed using Capture NX 2.
If you look at the first shot, the light is amazing. It’s sort of cross lit and people assume that I used some sort of fill flash or reflector, when in reality there is neither. There is a huge wall to camera right that is cream colored and the building to camera left is just a little warmer. She is also under an overhang so there is no other light bouncing around.
The way I controlled the amount of cross light was by moving her closer or farther away from the wall that is closest to her on the left. The closer I move her to that wall the more contrast I get because there is more hard fill coming across her face.
The key to this whole process is metering off the face. I fill the frame with the face and take a reading then back up and shoot. You don’t even need to focus, just fill the frame and take a reading.
Now by using that same concept if you want a shot a little more low key, you can turn them to the darker side of your area. In this case it is camera right. I turned her around and put her back to the big wall and had her basically in complete shadow. The only difference is that the shadow side has a white wall. You can see from the shot above that it gives it a completely different feel than the first shot. Very soft and a little moody. Once again the key was to meter off of the face and not the whole scene. If you meter off of the scene you will be dark because the meter sees all the white and thinks it is a really bright scene. Meter off the face and you never have to worry.
For me front lit is always the way to go with most women’s photography, especially seniors. Not front-lit with hard light, but front lit with bounced light. In the 3rd shot I used the huge wall to my back as a huge fill card. The light is amazing and soft which works great for people with bad complexions as it takes away all shadows and texture. I have yet to find a manufacturer that will make a 4 story reflector that folds up into my camera bag (if you do know of one let me know because I so want it), so until then I use natural reflectors like white or cream buildings or anything else I can find.
One last thing I get asked is “what do you do if the light is bad where you are shooting.” Simple just move to where the light is good. Why fight it when it is just easier to move!
Kevin Focht
To see more tips on lighting and retouching check out LeftTurnCreative.com or to see more of Kevin’s work go to LeftTurnStudio.com
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7 Comments at "You Don’t Need Reflectors They are Everywhere!"
Great Article Kevin! It reminds us photographers to use the best camera equipment we have.. our eyes.
Metering off the face is also something I do and I am very unhappy
to see that it is not my own idea.
Thanks for the article!
Great article! Easy read & easy to understand. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
“Yes, could you please move your wedding ceremony outside? The lighting in this church is all wrong!” ; )
Some good advice here, but like Bernie said, this is maybe easier said than done. Sometimes we are looking to create an image also that may need a certain setting and we need to futz with lighting, via flash or reflector. Good advise for when its available though.
Bernie and Marie, I understand what you are saying in regards to the ceremony, but you can move the bride and groom shots to a location of your choice. This is also great for doing portraits too. Why force it when you can find the correct light somewhere else.
Thanks for the comments!
Kevin
You can’t control mother nature and static backgrounds. They are what they are. That’s why light modifiers were created…:) Wait, move that background over here …..
I love this post. I’m just getting into wedding photography, and sometimes have trouble exposing correctly for the face. I never thought to expose with the face filling the frame, then pull back for the whole scene.
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