Last week Nick Didlick and I were teaching a workshop in southern California. We took the group out for a couple of shoots, going to San Juan Capistrano (the famous old Mission) and Huntington Beach. At the first location the focus was on architecture and plants, at the beach it was people. And once again I marveled at how easy it is to use reflectors to light people.

For those of you who haven't used reflectors, they're simply something used to reflect light (makes sense, right?). Most photographers use fabric-covered panels (usually round) of various sizes, covered in different types of material. Some use white cloth, some silver material (like aluminum foil) and some gold or a combination of colors. Even a sheet of posterboard from an art supply store, or a large sheet of aluminum foil will work.

Using them is fairly easy, but does require one thing bright - light. Reflectors are a great way to light someone who's sidelit or backlit, and it's really amazing how much light you can shine onto them on a sunny day. In fact you'll find out pretty quickly that you can blind your subject, so it's best to shoot some, take a break to give their eyes a rest, then shoot some more.

For the beach shoot we'd also brought strobes, but with 15-20 people shooting at the same time, there was a real problem with recycle time. Reflectors let everyone photograph the models at the same time, and since the light was constant (unlike the short burst of a flash), it was easy to see where the light was going and adjust accordingly.

Lightweight, inexpensive and able to project a lot of light with little effort, reflectors should be a part of every photographer's kit.