Before we go any further, let us brief you on what is a reflector, in a simple and layman way. For most people, it looks like those windscreen cover found on your car. A reflector is a device, comes in variety of sizes, shapes and materials, used to reflect available light to the surface of subject that you wish to photograph. Besides reflecting, modern reflectors also come in variety of colors for different purposes. For eg, black color reflector is not used to reflect any light, it is used to shield off available light (undesirable) or also can be used as a backdrobe of all your outdoor shootings. Macro enthusiast will find black color reflector useful to get rid of distracting backgrounds while shooting macro shots.
Another special type of reflector is translucent reflector, same as black color, it's also used for excessive light shielding, sometimes it's also called a diffuser because the way it filters off excessive light on the subject.
You will get all the mentioned type of reflectors in a set of 5 in 1 reflector, for eg: 110cm 5 in 1 Reflector.
Lets get back to basic, how to use a reflector? Simple, reflector is just like a piece of oversized aluminium foil, the reflective surface is used to direct available light to the surface of the subject that you are about to photograph, check out the picture below: (click on image to enlarge)
Simply erect a reflector, point it to the subject (just like the picture above), adjust the direction of light (the way you want it), snap and that's it.
Sometimes a reflector is more useful than a flashgun itself because:
- it gives you results even before you press the shutter button, you can reflect it off the surface of the subject and see the direction of the light, change the direction, adjust the light intensity; all before pressing the shutter button. The results is right in front of you to view and evaluate, check before you snap.
- It uses natural light, for eg, sunlight, it gives natural results, unlike harsh flash casting onto subject
- It uses no battery at all, shoot until you drop (or at least the sun goes down).
- It's a lot more cheaper! The biggest reflector available is just a small portion of the cheapest flashgun available in the market.
The only let downs?
- You need assistance (to hold the reflector for you), get this if you do not have an extra hand: Reflector Holder
- You need sufficient ambient light. Not really useful indoor or at night.
- A bit bulky to carry around.
Of all the pros and cons above, a reflector is still fun to have 1 around, check out the shots below, perhaps lots of masters out there would have better "reflector shots" than we do, it still gives us satisfying results that we have always wanted to. (click on the image to enlarge)
Check out the pictures above, using a reflector on the left of the image, we manage to get reflected light onto the subject itself without casting extra light onto rocks and surrounding. If we were to use a flashgun, most probably the whole area (or at least the around around the subject) would more or less be tainted with flash lighting. Using a reflector, we were able to plan our shots and view the results prior to pressing the shutter button itself.
The end result is a nicely lit subject with natural ambient lighting on the surroundings. Check out shots below:
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