Two weeks ago I showed you a really simple and cheap way to make a lighting reflector out of some aluminum foil and cardboard. It turned out to be a really popular article. It seems you folks really like it when I tell you how to get better photographs without spending much of your dough. I mean who doesn’t like keeping their money?

Shortly after that, reader Philip Litke joined the Sublime Light forums and posted a great tutorial on building an even better, bigger reflector out of an emergency space blanket, some dome tent poles, and some duct tape. You can make this one really big (which isn’t so feasible with cardboard and foil) and it collapses really small for extra portability. It’s also really cheap with the parts costing you under $20.

I have every intention of trying this out. While I do have a set of reflectors, who doesn’t want more? Besides, this is just plain cool if you ask me. When I do try it out, I’ll let you all know how it goes. Heck, maybe I’ll even make a little video tutorial along the way.

If you want to read the full tutorial courtesy of Philip, check it out here.

Oh, and Philip, thanks for joining in the fun and contributing this tip. I bet I’m not the only one who finds it cool.

Original image

We take a lot of pictures with our son, and he has really great skin color. The problem is, when my wife and I are in pictures with him, we always come out looking sunburned while he looks great. Luckily, there’s a quick and easy fix in Photoshop that just gets quicker with a little practice.

You can use this technique in all sorts of ways, but one of the most useful I’ve found is for correcting the skin tone of a portrait subject. For example, you can count on someone getting themselves actually sunburned while everyone else looks fine at least once in your photography days. Here’s how to fix it.

Step 1 – Create a Color Balance adjustment layer. After opening the file in Photoshop, go down to the layers palette and click the icon that’s a half black, half white circle. This pops up a menu for adjustment layers. Choose “Color Balance…”.

Sublime Light is a web site dedicated to teaching you to photograph people like a pro. For the latest articles, check out the home page.

DOF preview
button

There is a feature built into all digital SLR cameras that I know of that goes pretty well unused by many photographers. It’s possible that you didn’t even know it existed. If not, you may want to check it out the next time you break out your camera to shoot your next portrait. It’s the depth-of-field preview button, and it’s usually located near where the lens meets the camera body.

The depth-of-field preview (or DOF preview) button allows you to see what the depth-of-field will be for a given aperture before you press the shutter. As a quick refresher for our more novice readers, the wider your aperture (or the lower the number), the more narrow the depth-of-field will be (or the more the background will be blurred).

Newbie’s
external flash

Hopefully by now you’re starting to see how much better off camera flash makes your photos. But not everyone owns an external flash. If you’re not a professional and you’re not a serious enthusiast, then odds are you only have a camera.

Here’s how many hobbiests progress toward the transition to off camera lighting. They start out buying a SLR. This gets them more into photography. Then they buy a shoe mounted flash for better light. This lets them bounce light off walls and ceilings. Then they finally go for it and get the flash off the camera.

But there’s an option somewhere in the middle if you’re not ready to spend the money for more gear. You can reflect the light from your camera’s on board flash on to a wall, ceiling, or reflector. I’ll show you the simple process for doing this.

Finished reflector

Many hobby photographers would love to run out to the nearest camera store and drop a bunch of cash to buy all the necessary accessories to really make some awesome photographs. Those same hobby photographers would also love to hold on to their significant others, so sometimes priorities must be set. So if you’re one of those people who has been wanting to get a reflector set but doesn’t want to shed the cash, you should know that there are do-it-yourself options.

Here’s how to make your own reflector at home with just a couple of super cheap materials you probably have at home already.