best photo reflector set for portrait photography

#Best photo reflector set for portrait photography skin

In effect, you are creating a slightly shadowed area for the subject, which makes it ideal for portrait lighting outdoors. This diffuser is great when shooting in harsh outdoor sunlight and you just want to cut the light down or tone it down by placing the diffuser between the sunlight and the subject. Strictly speaking, the black side doesn’t actually reflect light but rather absorbs it, and is good for cutting light out or using as flags. This is the diffuser and a super versatile tool. This fabric wraps around a middle standalone piece that’s translucent.

These sides are made of fabric all stitched together as one zipped wrap. If you’re familiar with the 5-in-1 reflector, you’ll know there are four colored sides: white, silver, gold and black. I’d then get the happy warm tone that I’m after. Similarly, I’d warm up the one with the silver reflector in post, both using the white balance slider.

If I were to edit these photos without considering the true effects of the reflector I’d tone down the warmth of the gold reflector by half and I’d be good with that. With the gold reflector, the black is richer and darker, whereas with the silver it’s a little more washed out.įor me these are both a bit extreme, with the gold reflector being too warm and the silver being too cold. I thought I’d do the same comparison, this time with the subject wearing black.

#Best photo reflector set for portrait photography skin

Look carefully and this difference is more apparent on the teeth and skin tone being just a touch warmer. Notice the color temperature is still cool but softer, less sharp and less edgier than the silver one. Next to it on the right I once again had the same setup, but this time using two white reflectors. Notice how cool the color temperature has become.

This one had two silver reflectors positioned in the same places. This setup warmed everything up – shirt, teeth, face and even the background.Ĭompare the effect of the gold reflector to the bottom left. I used two gold reflectors: camera right and in the front underneath the face. The portrait on its right shows a rather obvious warm glow all over. The window is large enough for a big spread illuminating both face and background. Top left is a natural light portrait lit only by window light, half-clear and half-frosted (diffused) but with no other reflectors used.