DIY Camera Reflector

I shoot all the photos for the blog on an older nikon DSLR. The flash I have works great, but is not the typical form factor. It makes adding a reflector really difficult. Someone sells a reflector online, but it is more than I am willing to pay.

Although this post is about a photography accessory I felt a video would best explain the whole situation. In comes Mr. GoPro. Sadly my D80 does not support video capture. Maybe someday I will upgrade.

Now that the concept is out there a demonstration is in order. I find that doing a bounce of the ceiling takes care of 95% of my shots. Sometimes there is a lot of contrast, or for some reason a bit of fill lighting is required. That is where the reflector comes in. As you angle it forward, more of the light is directed forward instead of up.

For whatever reason my kitchen has the worst results with bounce flashes. Below are 3 shots done with the flash facing forward, up for the bounce, and up with the reflector. There isn’t a huge difference in the forward and reflector shot. The contrast isn’t so extreme, and the shadows are nice. I used a bit of white paper on the reflector. A grey sheet, or more diffuse surface maybe in order. It will probably take a lot of experimenting before I am happy. Still, as a mechanism the reflector works great!