Working with Reflectors

My favorite type of lighting to use for images is Off Camera flash.  I like the ability to control the light, and nice crisp look to my images.  I also enjoy using natural light specifically during the  Golden Hour, 30 minutes before sunset.  The light bathes the subject in beautiful warm tones.  One the things that I challenged myself to use more often is a reflector. These are great to pop light into an image, and they come in handy when you don’t have an assistant to operate your strobe.  When I packed for this session with the eclipse dress, I knew that I was going to bring my large reflector.  The plan was to use both natural light and the reflector.

For these images, I had the model stand with her back to the sun. It was still high in the sky, but as you can see in the background, the colors are still warm.  I also wanted to use the sun as rim light.  I held my large reflector in front of me to illuminate the model, and to ensure that there were catchlights in her eyes.  The result is exactly what I had pictured in my mind.

Lots of photographers shy away from using reflectors in their work.  It’s all about mastering light. Afterall, the light is the subject in an image.  We just place people in it.