Blogging 4 the Public -Jay Rodriguez Photography & Graphics – Tips, Tricks and Inspiration.

Creating soft light with your Diffuser & Reflector

When we go shooting out doors we highly depend on the natural light of the sun to help us out and get the results we expect during the day. I am one that packs my trunk with just about everything I have to make the light go where I want it to go.

I like to shoot early in the morning to high noon. After 2 or 3pm I start packing my gear to head back to the lab. Reason me doing this is because I always like the results I get when the sun is at it’s highest peak. The more natural light I can take advantage of, the comfortable I feel when shooting outside.
If the shoot passes my “wrap-up time” I rely a ton on my reflectors and diffusers. Bouncing the light from one spot to another and softening the light when needed takes a  while to get perfected, but when you get it down right along with the right help you can come up with some interesting results.

If you don’t have reflectors or diffusers you can go with a substitute from any craft store like A.C.Moore or Joanne’s and pick up some white project boards and get some creative light from bouncing the sun from the white boards onto your subject.
As for your substitute diffuser, I’ve used several different sizes of thin weight white fabric that’s nearly translucent… and can do the job as well. Fabric also can be found at either location as well.

Below is a short video I found and I thought I’d share with you guys/gals on reflecting and diffusing. Giving you an idea to bouncing and diffusing light if your new to this step.