When starting in portrait photography it is all too easy to get sucked in to studio or off camera flash world when really what we need to do is to start simple with natural / available light.

For this we don’t need a ton of kit.

If you have a camera & lens you can get to work and if you want to add a few tools to offer a lot of control you can do so very affordably.

All you need to add is a reflector or diffuser or an all in one solution like we have linked below.

1. Pixapro 60cm 5in1 Reflector – Nice and portable.

2. Pixapro 100x150cm 5in1 Reflector – Still portable but a larger reflector panel.

These reflectors will allow you to diffuse, bounce, reflect and subtract light from your subject. With that you can change the light on your client or subject from hard to a soft light source. You can also increase contrast in a shot by using the black side.

They can also be used as a background.

You can use these tools above with natural light and any available light you may find at home say for example room lights, a torch, desk lamp etc.

You can see a large 5in1 in use on the images below. (images from a workshop I ran back in 2019).

Direct sun diffused by a large circular diffuser panel.

Direct sun giving a different feel and a hard light.

I talk about a few other options and my thoughts on this in the video below.

Thank you for reading.
Rick