Clearly, one of the most useful tools in the photographer’s world is a reflector. Reflectors are most often used to add light to a subject’s face when shooting late in the day, in other low light circumstances, or in high-contrast situations where controlling the shadows is important. Most people choose to use white or silver and occasionally gold reflectors. They can be round, square, or even rectangular.
Image 5–1. In a soft, ambient light setting, we added a small silver reflector from below to open up the dark areas under the subject’s eyes, nose, and chin.
Image 5–2. Light was subtracted from the window frame on the shady side of a house, producing dark areas on the face. Adding a white reflector helped to open these dark areas by bouncing the ambient light onto the face.
Image 5–3. In low contrast lighting conditions, a silver reflector will add more in terms of exposure and “snap” than a white one. However, you should only make the switch to silver if the model (as here) has really smooth skin and good makeup. Otherwise, white will be a better option.
Image 5–4. Again, a white reflector aided in revealing the features and contours of the face. When soft light is reflected, be careful to not let it become too “shiny” by reflecting it from too far a distance. The closer, the better. (Photo by Rob Hull)
Bouncing light onto a face to lighten dark areas is the standard and usual practice. There are times when the reflector is simply used to open up the shadow side of the face from one side or the other (to add fill light). And there are also times, such as in a backlighting situation, when the reflected light is placed to be the primary light.
Image 5–5. Strong directional backlighting required that we add light to the face in order to maintain detail in the highlights from behind. A large white reflector was perfect for this situation and gave a beautiful soft glow in the highlights of the face.
However, one of the problems I often see often in images where people used a reflector is improper placement. Once the decision is made to redirect any kind of light with a reflector, it becomes in essence a primary (main light) or secondary (fill light) source. As such, you have to keep in mind where it is placed relative to the subject. Those in portrait photography have been taught for years that placing the main light about 45 degrees from the camera is an almost ideal position for creating a sense of depth, showing true shape and dimensionality on a face. I tend to think about the position of the reflector exactly like it is a studio light, so its position should be in the same place I would put a light in the studio.
Background Control (Key Shifting)
Here is what I think of as a unique perspective on the use of a reflector. Whenever you add light to a face with a reflector in an ambient situation, you have to reduce the exposure to account for the additional light added to the face. Doing so reduces the amount of ambient light in the background—as well as any other areas of ambient light, such as the shadows. This is literally shifting the “key” of the photograph to a lower key. This is the exact opposite of using a diffuser as mentioned in chapter 3. In that case, we reduced the amount of light on the face due to the density of the fabric—and when we increased the exposure to compensate for the loss of light, the background and other areas of ambient light got brighter.
If we are going to have directional light on any subject, we get to make several choices. We get to choose how sharp the edge of the shadow is and how soft/large the highlights are. In addition, we get to determine how much of an exposure difference there is on the face between the highlight side (the side lit by the main light) and the shadow side.
Image 5–6, 5–7, and 5–8. Variations in the highlight to shadow ratio can be seen here as we go from a 2:1 ratio (top), to a 3:1 ratio (center), to a 4:1 ratio (bottom). The subtlety of these ratios is yet another area defined by personal taste. When using a black panel in an ambient light situation that is placed opposite the primary light source, this can be as easy as moving the panel in and out until the desired result is achieved.
This difference in exposure level, expressed numerically, is called a light ratio. If the light were equal on both sides of the face (non-directional), the ratio would be expressed as 1:1. If we move to directional lighting, let’s say we have a meter reading of f/8 on the highlight side of the face and then bring in a simple white reflector until we have f/5.6 reading on the shadow side. That means the highlight side receives 1 stop more light that the shadow side; this is denoted as 2:1 ratio. Each +1 stop change doubles the light—so, photographically speaking, the exposure on the highlight is twice as bright as the exposure on the shadow. If we backed up the reflector until we saw a meter reading of f/4, we would have a ratio of 4:1—meaning the highlight is four times as bright as the shadow. At lower ratios, the lighting tends to look open and friendly; at higher ratios, the mood tends to shift toward a greater sense of intensity and drama.
It’s helpful to understand ratios, but you should not let them drive all of your creative photographic decisions. They don’t have to be exact. Your style, the desired effect for the subject, and the mood you are trying to project should all, ultimately, combine to make the image unique and successful. You can use an understanding of ratios to help achieve this—but not to handcuff you into always doing the same thing.
“Your style, the desired effect for the subject, and the mood you are trying to project should all, ultimately, combine to make the image unique and successful.”