We were introduced to using reflectors and speedlites, creating different lighting techniques and seeing how using different coloured reflectors and placing the flash in different positions and at different stops could create different effects to an image.
I learnt how vital it is to correctly use a speedlite and/or reflectors when shooting on location. This is so I can have such a small light in my kit; if I can master a speedlite I won’t need to lug large, heavy studio flash around with me.
The first thing I did was to shoot a portrait using ambient light only and then shoot a portrait adding in a reflector as a diffuser. When using a reflector you can achieve a variety of qualities by varying the size of the reflector, varying the distance of the reflector to the subject and by using reflectors with different surfaces and colours.
The image below was taken using no reflector so I could compare the effects of using one.
White reflector
The image below was taken using a white reflector. It gives quite a cool colouring and soft effect to the sitters face.
Gold reflector
The image below was taken using a gold reflector. I really liked the warm tones it gives to the sitters face and hair.
Siver reflector
The image below was taken using a silver reflector. I felt this one worked the best. It gave natural skin tones to the sitter, lifted the shadows underneath the eyes and was an overall nice image.
Black reflector
Using the black reflector gave a lot more shadows to the image, especially around the eye area and under the chin. This I feel would be used for a very dramatic looking image.
I then did a Fill-In-Flash portrait, using my flash in M mode to create the correct balance of fill versus ambient light, and remembering that viewing my image on the screen that the flash light should hardly be noticeable.
I tried another technique called dramatic Lighting portrait. I selected an exposure on the background that appeared underexposed, and this enhanced the effect. I adjusted the power of the speedlite to create the correct exposure on my subject. I went from the lowest setting on the speedlite, which was the darkest, then worked my way up to the highest setting on the speedlite which put more exposure on my sitter. Each setting created a different mood and feeling to the image.
I made sure I viewed the histogram to double check my exposure and I used the same settings on my camera each time.
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