The Natural Light Portrait Book

Where to Position a Reflector

The most comfortable position for your friend or assistant to hold a reflector is down low around their hips, but unfortunately that’s about the worst possible place to hold a reflector. Here’s why: When it’s down low like that it bounces the sunlight from down low up at your subject. Under-lighting people like this is what you do to make them look angry or aggressive, like if you’re lighting a football player or wrestler and you want them to look really tough and aggressive. For most of our portraits, we’re not going for “tough and aggressive”—we’re trying to create beautiful light that flatters our subject. This ...