One of the biggest frustrations bloggers and photographers face is lighting. It can be tricky to get the subject of a photograph to look radiant, have their colors stand out and shine, and illuminate details effortlessly in front of a camera’s lens. Luckily, I have a fabulous quick, free trick to brighter photos – all you have to do is build a simple light reflector!
I know you’re thinking… wait! You said this was free…. but I have to BUILD something?
Luckily, about 90% of people will already have all the materials you’ll need in your home- as all you really need is foil (or some kind of shiny, silver or gold material) and something to hold it on.
Need to illuminate a big room that doesn’t get a whole lot of light? Need to photograph something that you can’t put directly next to a window? Need to stand facing the item and the window, not take a photo standing next to the window, with the product facing you (which is ideal to get great light?) No problem!
Here’s a photo I recently took in my daughter’s nursery of a little vase I hand painted and a quick silk bouquet I placed in it. This sits on her dresser, which is right up next to a window. When I try to photograph it, the bouquet always turns out dark, and the background impossibly bright (because it is brighter outside than in her room.)
You can’t see many of the details I painted on the vase, the flowers are dull looking, and its so dark!
I then grabbed a few things from my kitchen to make the shot better:
A plain old baking sheet and some tinfoil. I draped the tinfoil over the baking sheet, and taped it onto the back so I could use the baking sheet as a light reflector! (You can use a cardboard box, tape it onto a chair, furniture, hang from the ceiling- anything that allows you to control tinfoil and place it at the angle you like best.)
I held the baking sheet, tinfoil pointed at the window, in between the vase and I (yes, it is a bit awkward to hold a reflector and take a picture, but it is SO worth contorting your body a bit!) I moved it up and down and tried different angles until I thought the bouquet and vase looked the best. And the results speak for themselves!
You can use this trick in all sorts of situations. I have actually hung tinfoil from the ceiling as a few long strips that I joined together to make a wall-sized reflector to get pictures in my living room. I’ve also made teeny tiny reflectors to illuminate just a tiny area to reduce harsh shadows behind a subject. The sky is the limit- and you can easily re-roll the foil and use again and again.
If you notice your photos look a bit too blue when using foil, you can get some gold-toned foil. Or you can paint a slight glaze of a color onto foil if you’d like your subject to take on another hue, too! (HOW COOL IS THAT??)
I find this works the best when you point your reflector at a light (either a light in your room or a window with sun coming in.) This will let you take pictures of a subject without having it pointed towards a light- and is great for taking photos of people with! You can adjust your reflector to highlight features, avoid squinting eyes, and give people a beautiful, soft glow to their skin. If it is hard to hold your reflector and use your camera at the same time, you can prop it up on furniture, or even tape it to something to hold it in place. And since tinfoil is very inexpensive to replace, you don’t have to worry too much about damaging it.
So what do you think? How will you use this easy trick in your own photos?
Tyra says
March 31, 2014 at 9:58 amFabulous !!
Rose Powell says
March 31, 2014 at 10:00 amWhat a neat trick, too bad I don’t even have aluminum foil in the house, totally forgot to buy some, but I will not do that EVER again! Thanks for the great tip!
Cheryl says
March 31, 2014 at 10:09 amGreat tip for a super fix! Love it Courtney!
Allison {A Glimpse Inside} says
March 31, 2014 at 10:44 amGreat top Courtney!
Allison {A Glimpse Inside} says
March 31, 2014 at 10:44 amTip…not top. Lol
Brandy @ BD Designs says
March 31, 2014 at 11:04 amIt can be so frustrating when the natural light won’t work with you. This is such a helpful tip! Thanks for sharing.
svetlanav says
March 31, 2014 at 11:13 amAlso, you could use a piece of white cardstock or paper instead of foil
Jillian says
March 31, 2014 at 12:31 pmI do this all the time and it totally helps with capturing images of my food.
Laura - Make Life Lovely says
March 31, 2014 at 12:35 pmThanks so much for the great tip!!
Natalie @ A Turtle's Life for Me says
March 31, 2014 at 2:19 pmIf this works I’m going to give you a big old hug the next time I see you!! I have terrible lighting in my house and need all the help I can get with this!
newlywedpilgrim says
March 31, 2014 at 2:32 pmJust what I needed to day for a craft post I’m doing! My Easter candy topiary centerpieces will look much much better.
Lizzie says
March 31, 2014 at 4:18 pmThank you SO MUCH for this! My apartment is like a black hole and so many of my projects are rejected from websites for poor lighting. This is the perfect fix!
Pam says
March 31, 2014 at 9:46 pmOmg! Thank you for this! It sounds silly, but I was just losing sleep over this! lol I really was. I was bummed about the way my photos were coming out because I don’t have a top-of-the-line camera. (fuji pocket cam).
Now I can get some sleep!
Thanks
Debra Howard says
April 1, 2014 at 9:50 amGreat tip girl! I’m going to try it! I keep thinking I will buy one of those darn reflectors but this might just save my pocketbook.
Simmone D. says
April 1, 2014 at 11:25 amI have a reflector I use for portraits but, I never thought about using it for indoor still lifes. Duh!!! Thanks for the tips.
McKenzie @ Girl Loves Glam says
April 2, 2014 at 10:15 pmMind blown! Thanks for the tip Courtney!
upcycledtreasures says
April 9, 2014 at 10:15 pmThis is such an amazing tip and I can’t wait to try it out! Thank you so much for sharing!
Kendra says
February 5, 2015 at 7:15 pmgreat tip!!! I have been wondering about this.
Eva Perpruner says
May 14, 2015 at 12:20 pmThis is so helpful and clear.I was amazed athhow well written your instructions were.
Thank you for sharing
Samantha Rose @ Sugar Tea says
October 26, 2015 at 12:18 amThis is a great post! Thank you for this. Will definitely be trying this out.
Samantha Rose
Xxx
Tauni says
October 27, 2015 at 8:27 pmHey Samantha, glad you found the post helpful! xo