Photography Lighting Alternatives

Video Transcript

"This is Mark Bowers from Bowers Photography.com with alternatives to studio light. The things that I really like the most are reflectors. You can actually build reflectors out of a piece of cardboard and glue some tinfoil to it. It works really well. I bought some of these reflectors and some of these are really useful. This one has a single handle. You can hold it with one hand. It's got a really bright silver. I use it to light up underneath somebody's eyes because a lot of the times the light is coming straight down in their face and their eyes are kind of dark. So, lighting this up really makes a big difference. The other side is white. In case you're in full sun this is a little bit softer light. I've got a gold one that's really fun. I use this one a lot for a sunset type of a color On the face it's a little bit too gold but on somebody's hair it has a really beautiful effect on their hair. This one is really fun. It's a six foot by three foot reflector and it's called a portable cloud. And you can basically hold it over somebody's head to block the sun to give a little bit softer light or you can hold it in full sun and bounce a big soft light into somebody's face. It's really, really useful. It's like a big burrito to fold this thing up. And this last one I use, it also, it has a little bit of gold and a little bit of silver mixed. And the other side is a softer silver. It's not quite as sharp and as harsh as the other one. And we use that one. Also, inside there's a diffusion panel that we can use for direct sunshine also. And that's really, that's really useful. This is a nice handy reflector also. And so, for alternative lighting outside the studios, reflectors are just my favorite thing to use. So, if you're on a budget, one of the best things to do is get a few reflectors or make a few reflectors. Go outside. I find that the sunlight itself is kind of harsh, but if you can find some trees, use reflected light. Or go late in the day, late in the afternoon, or early in the morning when the light is a little bit softer. Noon day sun is kind of bright but the other times of the day are really beautiful."