Easy ways to use reflected light in your photography

Want an inexpensive way to reflect and direct the light from your flash or speedlight? Here’s some easy ways of doing just that!

Why should you reflect light from your flash or speedlight?

Illuminating your subject with a flash or speedlight aiming directly at it can look flat and harsh. Furthermore, if photographing people, it can produce “red eye.” The camera flash can reflect off their retina and appear red in the photograph. 

Using reflected light

Reflected light can look more pleasing and natural. One way of doing this is to aim your flash or speedlight away from the subject. That’s right, not directly at them. Instead, we can achieve some better light by aiming the flash at a white ceiling or white wall. This will bounce the light at the subject instead.

Another way is to aim the flash into a reflector. This often has the bonus of illuminating the subject with both the reflector as well as bounced light from the ceiling or wall.

Reflector

For several years, I have used a light modifier called a Rogue Flashbender Reflector to reflect light from my flash. As a bonus, I can also use this to direct the light. I can bend this back or forward as necessary to determine how much light went forward or to the side. You simply bend it and it stays in that position. This setup gives me instant flexibility. When photographing people, it can also create catchlights in the eyes in almost any configuration, particularly when used with a flash bracket.

Flash bracket

I sometimes use an inexpensive Stroboframe Quick Flip 350 Flash Bracket along with the Rogue Flashbender Reflector. This creates an off-camera flash. After all, using a flash can be a little harsh when mounted on the camera. This gets the flash off the camera and creates an even more pleasing reflected light. It is a little clumsy and heavy to hold, though.

I used the combination of the Stroboframe and Rogue Reflector when I was doing event photography for a high-profile fundraiser for Exceptional Children’s Foundation at Skirball Cultural Center. The two in tandem produced good, professional results. Best of all, both are easy to use and are inexpensive. Remember to use the Inverse Square Law of Light when photographing to illuminate everyone evenly.

You can use the Rogue Flashbender Reflector, with or without the flash bracket, for parties, events, birthdays, gatherings, protests, and photojournalism with good results. And don’t forget that you can also direct the light by bending it to where you want easily and quickly!

Bonus: Batch-processing 100 of these photos in five minutes

I processed 100 of these event photography photos in five minutes. Learn how I did this.