Reflecting on my ugly mug

Back in the summer of 2010, I picked myself up a Optek 5-in-1 light reflector on amazon. It was probably the cheapest I could find in the size I wanted with as many modifiers in one piece as possible. It has a diffuser as the innermost circle, with different types of covers for different modifiers. The cover that zips over the diffuser is gold on one side and white on the other side. Then if the cover is flipped it has black on one side and silver on the other. At full size it is 43″ in diameter, but handily it folds down to be 1/3rd that size. Here I have a photo showing all the different modifiers in one. Most of them are self-explanatory as to what they are, but I will say that the diffuser is the one on the floor and the white cover reflector is the one behind my head.

The great thing about these are they can be used for so many different purposes. In one senior photo shoot I used it as a warm light reflector and in a different pose I used it as a sun diffuser. The different surfaces reflect light in very different ways. Below, I will show you how each reacts different in a very real way. I shot my ugly mug in the same position with the same lighting. The reflector was always in the same position, but with different modifiers. Just as a note, I am using a cheap manual flash unit, which can be bought on ebay for about 85 bucks. They aren’t the best quality as far as light color consistency, but good enough for this certainly. Also keep in mind that all settings on the flash must be set manually, so they take some practice. Anyway, here are the results. First, an image just with the flash and no modifier, just to show a constant.

The Diffuser

Generally a diffuser is actually used to, you guessed it, diffuse light. Which means that you would place this between the light source and subject. Normally a light will shine out fairly straight rays of light from the source, but the diffuser scatters those rays and makes them more random. They bounce around a lot more and essentially softens the light. What this means is that the light sort of flows around the subject, it fills in more and reduces the overall contrast. The edges are softer, which for a portrait is generally a more pleasing look. This is especially the case with women, who prefer a softer, more delicate, look. So here is the result with the diffuser.

But you can also use this as a soft reflector. It won’t reflect as much light as the solid white, but it should be the same color. This is because it is semi-transparent. Some of the light passes through the diffusion layer, and some of it bounces back on your subject. The white reflector is a pretty neutral reflector, as it bounces back the same color as your original light source. So here is the diffuser being used as a reflector.

Silver Reflector

The silver side reflects a cool light. This can be good if you want to add a tone or mood to the image that would use a cool color. It can also give a contrast from a very warm light. The foil like coating on this surface will give stronger reflections.

Gold Reflector

The gold color will reflect a warmer light. The foil like coating also gives much stronger reflections.

White Reflector

White will reflect a neutral light, effectively the same color as the cast light. The fabric texture will give a more toned down highlight and a smoother reflection of light.

Black Reflector

The black cover will reflect some light, though not much. You can also use it in a pinch as a backdrop for a closeup.

Final Thoughts

Here are all of them closer up, side by side for review:

The reflector will act differently depending on the distance from the subject, distance from the light and the angle. So, you can use the reflector to just light the background, or more on the subject, or different areas of the subject. It all depends on what your end goal is. The closer to the subject and light the reflector is, the more light will be reflected. Using these modifiers can take some practice and an assistant or reflector stand is an invaluable thing to have, especially in outdoor/windy conditions. You can see that the gold had the most impact, and probably gets my most use, besides the diffuser. It would actually be pretty handy to have a couple of these, so that you could use both the diffuser and the gold reflector. Though it would be possible to use both modifiers at once with this set, the diffuser is what gives the reflectors the stiffness that they require.

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© This article is copyright of Chris Lane Photo and should not be found elsewhere.

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Tags: light modifier, lighting, portrait, reflector, strobe
Posted in hardware, photography, Training |