I love experimenting with light and shadows. And this is one such experiment. The experiment is very simple: What would happen it the same subject was shot under the same light conditions using no card/reflector, a silver reflector, a white card, and a black card. You might be surprised with the results. Lets take a look.
The image above of the new bike frame was shot under day light conditions with light coming into the room from a very large (south facing) window just behind the camera and slightly to the right. This was shot on an overcast day in late afternoon so the light was very soft. There is no reflector to the left of the bike frame.
This shot has a silver reflector to the left of the bike frame, just out of frame. The round 74cm silver reflector is just a few inches away from the subject. Notice how the Specialized “S” logo is much cooler looking because of the silver reflector is being reflected by the bike frame itself.
In this shot I used a 20″ X 30″ sheet of white foam board in the same position as the silver reflector. Notice how the shadow on the left seems to look washed out because of the reflection of the white card on bike frame. This clearly shows that white cards and silver reflectors have different fill light properties.
And finally, here I used a 20″ X 30″ sheet of black foam board. Notice how dark the shadows look. The Specialized “S” logo almost fades to black. The black card makes the shadow very dramatic.
What have we learned? Silver, white and black reflectors/cards have very different reflective properties and can be used to achieve very specific looks. This is just a very basic look at reflectors and fill cards and experimentation is key. Grab an object (or even a person) and try to get different looks using different color reflectors and cards. In this experiment I only used silver, white and black. Try it with gold, or even better colored reflectors/cards. You’re bound to get a very interesting shot.
Which of the images above do you like best?
{ 4 comments }
by black reflector you mean a black card that “eats” instead of reflects light right ? or I’m missing something in my arsenal of diy stuff
interesting article, subject not so much but i’m not into biking 
@tom, thanks for pointing that out. Yes, I do mean black cards. I’ve edited the post to try to minimize any confusion.
What do you mean your not into biking?
Do you know where I can buy a silver fill card and a gold one? Also, where would I position those cards to throw the color into my engagement ring photos??
Any tips you have are very much appreciated! Nice blog by the way, very informative.
Regards,
Gerry Aubin
@Gerry, you can get reflectors from http://www.vistek.ca. You might not always want to use a gold reflector. Silver & white reflectors along with black cards are used most for jewelry to not add any colour cast to the subject.
Shooting jewelry is one of the hardest things to shoot. And takes patience to master. I couldn’t just tell you where to place the reflectors for you to get the perfect shot. It takes trial and error. There are three things to consider when shooting jewelry… properly lighting the subject, reflections in the jewelry, and giving the subject “shape” and “definition”. All are important to the lighting set up (this includes all reflectors and cards).
I’m putting together a post on this very topic. The working name I have for the post is “Shooting Shiny Things”. I want to make it as in depth as possible because there is so much that needs to be covered. Stay tuned…
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