Reflectors

I love reflectors. They are so much fun to work with and they can easily turn one light into two or more light sources. Awhile ago I went with a friend of mine to the beach where we got to play with reflectors. It was fun seeing the effect of the reflectors and seeing what we could do with the light.

We went right around sunset but as soon as I got there I realized we couldn't have her look directly into the source of light (the sun) because it was too bright. Therefore I had the sun on one side of her and I took the first photo. The shadows on the right side of her face were too dark and you really couldn't see her eye.



So for the next photo I put a gold reflector on the right side (her left) so it would take away some of the shadows and give it a similar golden glow as the sun. Unfortunately the angle I had it at made brought all of the light upon her face and made the right side too bright and unnatural looking



Finally, like Goldilocks, after playing around with the distance of the reflector and the angle, we got a more natural shot of her. The sun is still the main directional light, as evidenced by the shadow of her nose over the right side of her face, but the right side of her face was no longer in complete shadow. We can still see her clearly and while the right side is still slightly brighter than I would like, I'm happy with the lighting (although not with the photography...my model looks slightly unhappy that I was shining all of these lights in her eyes and this particular photo is out of focus).