Jeff Smith's Guide to Head and Shoulders Portrait Photography

When working with a reflector, you should always work with the sun to the

subject’s back. This illuminates the foliage from behind to bring out more color

(rather than having the sunlight directly hitting the background areas from the

side and burning up the background or creating “hot spots”). If direct sunlight

does strike the client, it acts as a hair light rather than streaming down on any

area of the face.

Next, place the reflector in the main-light position and reflect the sunlight

back toward the client—and notice I saidtowardnotat.We don’t want to blind

anyone, here. If there is not a strong backlight and the foliage or background

isn’t in direct sunlight, I have my assistant use the white side of the reflector and

place it close to the subject. If there is a strong backlight, my assistant will use

the silver side of the reflector and feather, inching it closer to the subject until

I see the lighting effect (and the quantity of light) I want.

WORKING ON LOCATION 105

Working in the middle of the day means
you have to deal with direct sunlight com-
ing through the overhead trees. As long as
the background is dark enough, this really
isn’t a problem. Here, we used the sun-
spots as an interesting background.

Place the reflector in

the main-light position

and reflect the sunlight

back toward the client.