If you are going to be a serious on location photographer you will have to get serious about using reflectors. Reflectors come in many different shapes and sizes and even in different colors or reflectivity. When you are outdoors and need extra light that is flattering to your subject reflectors help a whole lot. Reflectors are much more light weight now a days and most of them can fold up for ease of carrying. For example the two most commonly found reflectors are the round and the oval reflectors.

The round reflector can have up to 5 different panels that can be used. Translucent, White, Black, Silver and Gold. The most common of these panel would be the silver and gold, mainly because most photographers do not know when to use the colors. Its actually quite simple. If you are shooting in mid day sun light and have your subject in a shaded area but not getting good light on them you can use the silver panel to reflect that daylight onto your subject. If you are near a brightly lit area such as on the beach its best to use the white panel.

If you are shooting in the early morning or the late evening with that orange type sunlight then it is best to use the gold pane. If you want to subtract some of the light hitting your subject you can use the black panel and if you want to get diffused look on your subject you can use the translucent panel to block some of the sun light. These simple ways of using the reflectors are basic uses, there are many other techniques you can use while utilizing the reflectors.

While reflectors are great for location photography there are some draw backs. Most often you will need an assistant to help position the reflector in the right place to capture the light and reflect it on your subject. Since most location photographers when they are just starting out will be by them selves this poses a problem. There is a way to fix this, you can use a tripod with a reflector arm holder in place of that assistant. That solves the assistant problem but now your faced with another. The reflector holder becomes unstable and is easily swayed by just a little breeze. Its not consistent. So what do you do? should you give up?? Of course not! Your not the first person that this has happened to so by nature human beings will find a way to make life easier, hence better reflectors were made.

One of the best light reflectors I have come across is the sunbouce reflector.  Its light weight but not flimsy, its durable yet versatile and when placed on a tripod will not move with light or moderate wind.  If you are going to be a serious location photographer it is best to have good equipment.  Flimsy equipment will break sooner or later causing you more money to replace, however if you purchase good durable equipment at the beginning then you have no need to worry about buying the same equipment over and over again.