Quipped the protagonist in a recent romcom movie I watched. That made wonder how much reflection one needs or one wants indulge in, in the quest of self betterment. Almost every religion, every spiritual philosophy and for sure, every self help book advocates self reflection for bettering one’s self and overall happiness.
Is there a (minimum) prescribed amount of reflection one must undergo? What is the right amount of reflection? How do I determine that amount of reflection? Can I over do it? Will it render me to be the bystander in my own life? As a reflector, I lay baffled.
Reflector in Photography:
I know reflection upon one’s self is a good practice per se. Recently I discovered how much they enhance my photographic experience. You see, I always felt the fancy reflectors they use in studios and outdoors are for professionals, require a large set up and used mostly in the modeling assignments. I could not be more wrong. Inspiration to me came via a blog (https://thelenslounge.com/how-to-use-a-reflector/) I was reading about basic photography tips, and they are endless, mind you. One of the tips mentioned is using reflectors to capture an image that is back lit. In a backlit image (e.g. Sun is behind the subject) the face is in shadows.
One of the more common techniques for backlit image, is that a fill flash (low power flash to light up the objects in shadows) is used. One below is an example of such technique where in Sun is behind the flower and made the flower to be in shadow. Of course the image has the bright background still lit due to broad day light shooting.
After a bit of TLC in LR, the image is made a bit more eye pleasing as shown below. The back petals still show some luminescence and the give way is the shadow on the right most petal from the petal on the second to the right.
Now getting back to reflections and reflectors, the technique is about taking advantage of the available light using a reflector to light up the subject when the subject is back lit.
Here is the example of subject being back lit. The Sun is coming through the window and lighting up the flower from left. As you can see, from where I am located, the right side (as you view) of the flower is in the shadow.
I used a golden reflector to my right to reflect the sunlight coming from left to light up the whole flower. You can see the right side of the flower and the stem is also not the shadow anymore.
When I am the reflector:
The lesson I learned is that it is a good thing to use reflections (pun intended) they do sort of illuminate things that were darker before, and help you gain a better perspective. The questions still remain unanswered for me are: Is there a (minimum) prescribed amount of reflection one must undergo? What is the right amount of reflection? How do I determine that amount of reflection? Can I over do it? Will it render me to be the bystander in my own life if I reflect too much? Hopefully, I will find answers soon enough.
Interim, I will continue to reflect, be a reflector, and use a reflector in my photography. As with personal reflections, the reflectors have given me an added dimension to play with, which hitherto I was reluctant to consider. I am sure to reap some additional benefits from my self reflections as I did with reflectors in the photography. Consider the two images below. The first one is my wife, backlit, face is in shadows. The second one is of my daughter, with a reflector shining Sun on her face. .
The icing on the case is that I was able to get catch light with reflector that otherwise would have required a dedicated model light. The white spots in her iris, whose absence can make a portrait look bad.
Afterword:
As I continue my quest to find answers, I hope you reflect as often as I do, and find them at the least illuminating (no pun intended). After all, one a process, and the other a technique, both do bring your objective from shadows to light. Please stay healthy and enjoy life as it comes to you.
