Hack 24. Reflect Light from a Shade

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Improve your lighting by using a car windshield shade.

When lighting a scene, every so often you need to bounce light in order to overcome slight shadows. Professionals often use bounce boards, which are large sections of heavy, white paperboard, or light discs, which are flexible frames, covered with a reflective material. Luckily, both are made of materials similar to common windshield shades.

Cardboard shades are the cheaper of the two types of shades and can usually be purchased for $5.00 or less. They are perfectly good substitutes for bounce boards, especially when they are white. A nice feature is that they can be folded. This allows you to alter the size of the shade and therefore the amount of light reflection it provides.

Fabric shades are almost identical to professional light discs, except that they are designed to fit a car windshield. Because of this, they are much more affordable. Figure 2-17 shows a reflective fabric windshield shade.

To use the shade for additional light, angle it so that it faces the subject you would like to light. If your subject has a few shadows on his face, attempt to reflect light off of the shade up and onto his face, in order to fill the shadows. This requires you to hold the shade at about waist level and angled toward the subject. Figure 2-18 demonstrates the result of using a shade as a reflector.

If you already own a windshield shade, or can borrow one, then you don't need to hunt one down. Otherwise, you will probably have to make a run out to the local auto supply store, or purchase one online. Some grocery stores also carry them. However you obtain one, a windshield shade can possibly make the little difference needed to light your shot, while pulling double-duty to keep your car cool.

Figure 2-17. A windshield shade made of reflective fabric


Figure 2-18. Reflecting light from the left side to help reduce shadows


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    Digital Video Hacks
    Digital Video Hacks: Tips & Tools for Shooting, Editing, and Sharing (OReillys Hacks Series)
    ISBN: 0596009461
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2005
    Pages: 158
    Authors: Joshua Paul

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