How to Create Professional Photography Using $30 Reflectors for Lighting – Photography Video Tutorial

June 10, 2011

About a month ago, we took on the challenge of shooting an entire fashion shoot with just an iPhone and a couple $30 reflectors as a follow up video to the FStoppers iPhone Fashion Shoot. The SLR Lounge iPhone Photo Shoot has gotten a lot of attention and we thought it was time for a follow up video.

So, in this follow up video, we will be showing you guys the exact reflector lighting techniques that we used to pull off every shot that we took in the SLR Lounge iPhone Photo Shoot.

However, we will be using a legit camera this time. This time we will be using our 5D Mark II along with a 50mm 1.4 Prime Lens. But, trust me that you can pretty much get these exact same shots with virtually any DSLR body with a 50mm 1.4 Prime Lens attached. Below the video, we have listed out all of the equipment and software used to create these shots. So be sure to check that out as well.

Enjoy, and as always, let us know what you think!

Equipment and Software Used for this Shoot

1) Camera Body: Canon EOS 5D Mark II 21.1MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) How to Create Professional Photography Using $30 Reflectors for Lighting Photography Video Tutorial
2) Lens: Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM Standard & Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras How to Create Professional Photography Using $30 Reflectors for Lighting Photography Video Tutorial
3) CF Cards: SanDisk Extreme – Flash memory card – 16 GB – 400x – CompactFlash How to Create Professional Photography Using $30 Reflectors for Lighting Photography Video Tutorial
4) 2x Reflectors (One used as a scrim): Westcott 301 Photo Basics 40-Inch 5-in-1 Reflector How to Create Professional Photography Using $30 Reflectors for Lighting Photography Video Tutorial
5) Basic Editing: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 How to Create Professional Photography Using $30 Reflectors for Lighting Photography Video Tutorial
6) Advanced Editing: Adobe Photoshop CS5 How to Create Professional Photography Using $30 Reflectors for Lighting Photography Video Tutorial

SLR Lounge Reflector Lighting Tutorial

Sample Shots from This Tutorial

To see all of the original and edited shots from this shoot. Please check out the photos on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/slrlounge

SLR Lounge iPhone Photo Shoot

For those of you interested in checking out the SLR Lounge iPhone Photo Shoot, we’ve included the video below as well.

FStoppers iPhone Fashion Shoot

For those of you interested in the original “The iPhone Fashion Shoot,” by Lee Morris and Patrick Hall of the Fstoppers, we’ve included the video below as well.

Post Production Pye
SLR Lounge Senior Editor
Partner of  Lin and Jirsa, Los Angeles Wedding Photographer

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  • http://www.facebook.com/CtrlZMV Emilia Venegas

    This is very useful for me, I’m starting in photography as a business and I had a photoshoot a while ago, and couldn’t find a place that sold reflectors in my city, so I made them myself using cardboard and golden and silver card. So I made this useful and cool reflector for less than 30 bucks! So your techniques will come handy for the next time (at least my assistant needs more of these… lol) Thanks again and keep up your great work!

  • http://www.facebook.com/PyeJirsa Payam Jirsa

    Thanks Emilia, be sure to share the love and spread the word if you like the articles =)

  • http://twitter.com/jarrodlarocco Jarrod LaRocco

    Amazing demo of what can be done with reflectors.  The only thing I’d like to see would possibly to show the non-reflector shot when hovered over the image.  As for the video, this was a great follow-up to the iphone fashion shoot, tons of great info here.

  • http://twitter.com/jarrodlarocco Jarrod LaRocco

    Amazing demo of what can be done with reflectors.  The only thing I’d like to see would possibly to show the non-reflector shot when hovered over the image.  As for the video, this was a great follow-up to the iphone fashion shoot, tons of great info here.

  • http://tambnguyen.com/20110612/slrlounges-creating-professional-photography-w-30-reflectors/ SLRLounge’s Creating Professional Photography w/ $30 Reflectors | Tam Nguyen – Sacramento Photographer

    [...] Posted on Jun 12, 2011 in Photography, Tips | 0 comments A few weeks ago we posted a video by SLR Lounge that we called “The New iPhone Fashion Shoot.” In that video a reflector was used to [...]

  • Dcmighty

    i would like to know what is that thing that you have the iphone stuck to called? 

  • http://www.facebook.com/PyeJirsa Payam Jirsa

    Dcmighty, that was from the FStoppers video, I believe they just velcroed it onto the gun grip of a tripod head.

  • http://www.iportal.se/2011/06/13/anvand-reflektorer-for-billig-ljussattning/ Använd reflektorer för billig ljussättning | iPortal
  • http://www.stephanedaoust.ca/?p=467 Creating Professional Photography w/ $30 Reflectors » Stéphane Daoust – Photographe, Médias Sociaux, Artiste, Musicien ….

    [...] article at - http://www.slrlounge.com/how-to-create-professional-photography-using-reflectors [...]

  • Dave

    Great work on the vid with the reflectors! You dont happen to have a video or article on what you do in your workflow using lightroom and photoshop? Thanks for the article! 

    Dave

  • Dave

    Great work on the vid with the reflectors! You dont happen to have a video or article on what you do in your workflow using lightroom and photoshop? Thanks for the article! 

    Dave

  • http://www.facebook.com/PyeJirsa Payam Jirsa

    The post production will be the 3rd and final part to this article series. So it’s coming soon =) 

  • http://www.westvillecameraclub.co.za/?p=836 The Westville Camera Club

    [...] can be a very useful and inexpensive tool. In this video by “SLR Lounge” they show a number of different techniques for using reflectors in harsh [...]

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