When taking photos outdoors, the sun can reflect off of different surfaces causing unattractive shadows and discoloring. A simple resolution to reduce these effects and take your photography to the next level is cheap and truly changes your photos from good to amazing. Jason is talking about the cool, compact, and convenient Westcott 301 Photo Basics 40 inch 5 in 1 Reflector. Reflectors give you control of your light source and work alongside the natural sun light amazingly for both head shots and outdoor photos, as well as in studio lighting.
This Westcott 301 Photo Basic 40 inch 5 in 1 reflector has 5 awesome faces that all provide different improvements when used correctly. Therefore, I will go through each 5 faces and what they specifically do (Silver, gold, white, black, translucent).
Silver: The silver face is the trickiest one to use. In natural light it creates a contrast lighting that can sometimes look a little harsh. But, it still is useful in creating a very cool effect. It can also be used in the studio to create a strong reflection to act as either a main light or as fill and shine light onto something that needs more focus. The silver face is beneficial in studio and can be used outdoors also to create a striking catch light and create a cool, high-contrast tone image.Gold: The gold face creates a beautiful natural tone and brings color to a subject that lacks the liveliness in their skintone. Whether it is someone with a lighter skin tone or the weather/environment drains the color from the skin of the subject, the gold face reflector enhances skin tones and creates a bronze glow. They also call this reflecting the sunset effect because it warms the scene producing healthy and full looking skin tones.
White: White is an amazing reflector because it is responsible for the catch light. Like explained in our video, Jason describes the catch light in people’s eyes that really brings the life and glisten to a person’s eyes and makes your photo pop. This skill is not just from positioning the person’s face towards the sun, it is simply by angling the white reflector towards the subject’s eyes and automatically seeing the difference and brightness it brings to the photo and more specifically the eyes. The great part about this reflector is it keeps the color balance the same, but adds a simple glow to the skin and glisten in the eyes.
Black: The black face reflector does the opposite and absorbs light instead of reflecting it. Like described by Jason, the black face of this reflector actually absorbs the light and adds more depth and shadow to the photo. This stops the light in its tracks and does not allow the light to reflect off of any other surface. Therefore, the black face will absorb or even subtract light from a photo and produce a deep photo with natural shadow contrast.
Translucent: The translucent face is used as more of a diffuser. This “reflector” actually filters the light and decreases the harshness of a light or the sun. It works great when the sun is overhead and a headshot has that shadow under their eyes that look like they haven’t slept in weeks. The translucent filter will lighten the harshness of the sun and create an even tone of sunlight to the subjects face. Unlike the other reflectors that are held lower facing up to catch light, this filter is held over the head or at a higher angle in between the subject and the stream of light hitting the subject’s face.
Overall, reflectors are a great value and can truly become alternate light source when used correctly. Reflectors take a natural light, like the sun, or studio light photo to the next level by giving you the option to almost make edits with the lighting and coloring of the photo with the addition of an easy reflector. For all instances, the 5 in 1 reflector is the best and used by Jason himself in his own photography and when teaching his classes.
