Where to Position a Reflector

If there’s a “worst place” to light your subject from, it would be from a low angle. Think about it. When you want to make a scary “evil leprechaun” face at Halloween, what do you do? You hold your iPhone’s flashlight right under your chin, aiming up at your face, and well . . . the results are pretty hideous. There are rare times you want to light from below (when you want someone to look scary, or maybe for an athlete or wrestler you want to look aggressive), but for the most part, we want to light people naturally, and natural light comes from the sun, and the sun is where? (Wait for it . . . wait for it . . . .) That’s right, up in the sky. When we light from up high, the light looks more natural and pleasing, so when you have your friend hold a reflector to brighten up the shadowy side of your subject’s face, have them hold it up high, over their head, so the light reflects nicely down at your subject, not up at them. You’ll see people holding the reflector down low because, obviously, it’s much easier to hold it at waist level and tilt it up, but it’s also because they don’t know the right way (but now you do). The only time you might consider holding a reflector at waist level to bounce light back up is when the sun is the thing that is lighting your subject, and maybe there are shadows under their eyes and neck, and you’re using a white reflector just to bounce a little light back into those dark areas. In that instance, it’s okay, but as a general rule, we have our friend hold the reflector up high and angle it down toward our subject, so the reflected light comes down from above.