Photography: Using Reflectors & Bare Bulbs

Video Transcript

"In this segment we're going to just show you what the light looks like with the standard reflector, with no modifier, just a standard reflector. As you can see, the light is very harsh, the shadows are very strong, this could be good if you're trying to get a very dramatic look. People usually don't look very good when the light is directly on them like this, so that's usually why you want to throw on a kind of modifier. This is good for lighting large spaces and things like that, but not so great for lighting portraits. In this segment we're going to talk about bare bulb as a light. Bare bulb can actually be very nice, it's soft, it softens up the light a lot more than a standard reflector, and it also has kind of a look that's all tone, the light isn't super soft, it's still a little bit harsh, but it's definitely very usable. The only problem with this is it covers everything, I usually use these for outdoor portraits to kind of fill in shadows on sunny days, also for group shots when you want to cover a large area and want to keep the light fairly soft. It's also really nice with people, when you have a lot of people with glasses, and there's lots of reflections, or if they're in a mirrored or reflective area, because it keeps that spot small. When you're using a soft box or something, you get a large white reflection, and this is a good way to eliminate that."