Homemade Light Reflectors
Light reflectors allow you to illuminate the subject of your photographs from several angles using a single light source, enhancing the quality of your photos. You can purchase light reflectors at a camera store, or create cheap but effective homemade light reflectors. A homemade light reflector can be made out of any reflective material, but two popular choices are aluminum foil and white bed sheets.
Aluminum Foil Reflectors
To make a homemade aluminum foil light reflector, you will need aluminum foil, cardboard and spray adhesive. Supermarkets sell rolls of aluminum foil, and most hardware stores carry spray adhesive. You can use cardboard from an extra box you have around the house, or purchase it at an office supplies store.
Cut a flat piece of cardboard into a square or circle, of any size according to your preference. Larger pieces will allow you to reflect more light than smaller pieces, but they are more difficult to transport and position when you shoot photographs.
Remove enough aluminum foil from the package to cover the cardboard. If you have cut a large piece of cardboard, you may need to use several pieces of aluminum foil side-by-side. Coat one side of the cardboard with spray adhesive, and press the aluminum foil in place over the cardboard. Make sure to smooth the aluminum foil as you attach it to the cardboard. Once the adhesive dries, and wrinkles in the aluminum foil will be stuck there.
Instead of using aluminum foil, you can use white paper. White paper will reflect less light than aluminum foil, which is useful if you want softer or subtler lighting effects in your photographs. You can also attach aluminum foil to one side of the cardboard and white paper to the other side. This allows you to switch your light reflector during a shoot simply by flipping the board over.
Bed Sheet Reflectors
White bed sheets can also be used to reflect light. They will reflect similarly to a white paper on cardboard reflector. Bed sheets are useful because they can reflect a large area of light when stretched out, but in between shoots you can fold them up and transport them easily.
You can use bed sheets as light reflectors without any kind of support by placing them on the ground underneath the subject of your photo. This will reflect light upwards toward the subject, illuminating areas that lights often miss.
Alternatively, you can attach bed sheets to a stand to light photos from the sides. Purchase two wooden poles, and two short wooden 2-by-4s. Nail the poles to the 2-by-4s so that they will stand upright. When you are ready to shoot, set the two poles a few feet away from each other and drape the bed sheet over them.
Tags: aluminum foil, light reflector, spray adhesive, white paper, will reflect, aluminum foil, aluminum foil white
