Reflectors in Photography
As we all know, there are two types of lights in the photography, 1st is Natural light, 2nd is artificial light. Mostly photographer prefers natural light and enjoys the best of it. But sometimes artificial light plays a major role in the world of photography. The Reflector is the major tools who add the magical quality of lights to photography. One must know how to to use it, required sizes?, The material of the reflector. All this important knowledge helps you to improve your photography by adding a reflector's job.
Choose right reflector- The reflectors to provide a soft fill light so please buy it wisely, It is one of the difficult tasks to choose or find out the right reflector for your photography need. There are all sizes available in the market, small to the large reflector, All shapes are available like round, rectangular, triangular etc. Colours available Gold, silver and white etc and combinations of all three colours are also available with names like the Sparkling sun, Sunfire, Zebra, and Soft silver, Find out these with the name and feel the difference. The most important things to know in advance, that is the size of the reflector, bigger size reflector will give you a large area of the soft light. But sometimes it is difficult to handle and hold. If shooting portrait, Then a small reflector can serve you better soft light than the bigger reflector. If possible try to have a medium size of reflectors, A 42'' inches reflector is a common size to have and easy to use.
Once you are comfortable with the sizes, colours, and shapes. There are end numbers of brand available in the market, offering the new fancy features day by day. Like reflector with the handle, foldable, brackets. Once you start window shopping to buy a reflector, the Reflector manufacturing company will educate you with their new fancy features, how to use, the material used, and Which reflector will produce a better quality of the light. Please do not be confused, It is just a matter of buying the right reflector for the right shoot. This is purely a personal preference. It will always keep on changing, working with different light conditions. But white/silver mix is commonly used and will always give good quality light.
How to use the reflector. Holding reflector has many ways to use, hold, etc. Sometimes the assistant holds it because it gives you the freedom to capture the shot without any disturbance or hassle. There are reflector stands available in the market, who replace your assistant. This is also a good option.
Try to keep reflector not too close to the subject, otherwise light will overpower the natural light. always remember reflectors are made to provide soft fill light, keep it on the distance from the subject. The reflector reflects the light and provides soft light to fill in the subject. Never allow your subject to look directly on the reflector in the full sunlight. Ask or prepare your subject to see, from where the light is lending. Finding a perfect angle for your reflector is totally depend on the practice and experiment. Start reading the light on your subject, which is very important for every photographer.
It is your choice of how and when to use the reflector with the natural light condition. You yourself have to read the light on the subject and settle down the reflector at the right angle. A reflector is one of the most useful and versatile tools for lighting equipment. Which has no predefined method of using, Use best of it in your method and always improve your photography?
Keep experimenting and Have happy photography to you all
Photographer & Blogger Prasenjeet Gautam (www.prasenjeetgautam.com) Image courtesy - Google
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