Do you use a reflector?

This is another commonly asked question. Yes I do, on every shoot, depeding on the shoot is depending on what I use it for. Let's go over 2 ways to use a reflector.

First way. A main light. Okay the most common way I have seen shooters shoot is point the sun to their back and shoot the model properly exposed, overexposing the sky. This is good if you use pure ambient lighting, but I see a problem with it. There is no catch light in the eyes and the background is blown out, to me that is distracting. The way to get that catch light is use a white foam board or anything white. If you have a 5 in 1 reflector use the white side. The reason I say use the white side is you want to fill in, not overexpose. The silver side, or using a silver side will overexpose and cause the model or subject to squint. that makes any photo look bad, period. Using the white side will fill them in a little better and give a nice catch light in the subjects eyes. It is not hard to do at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jJKF9ihLwQ

Here is a good link. It goes over all the sides of the reflector.

Second way: as a fill light. If you use off camera flash, and only have one light it makes a great fill light! You can do it multiple ways, bottom fill side fill etc. You can use either side of the reflector because now you will lose several stops of light. The reflector has to be directly across the light. But it will add a great fill light!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH84-pA7p-c

These are just 2 very basic ways to use a reflector you can do a lot with them. Again, this is just basic lighting. Anyone got any questions? Email me!