Using Reflectors:

For cinematographers, the need to craft and control images is as important as ever — particularly for those working in the emerging independent and digital-video (DV) feature markets. The shoot-it-as-is, run-and-gun mentality propagated by ardent promoters of the DV “revolution” only goes so far in the aid of good storytelling. Regardless of the size of the budget or crew, or the format in which it is shot, a film’s imagery can strengthen the written and performed script in ways that often exceed the expectations of the writer and director. Indeed, the craft of cinematography — the telling of stories with images — has been evolving since 1877, when a horse’s gallop was first captured  in the famous series of stills by Eadweard Muybridge.

As veteran director of photography Stephen H. Burum, ASC points out, however, the art of honing imagery to suit the needs of a story needn’t drain your bank account. Foremost on Burum’s list of low-budget image-making tactics is the effective utilization of the cheapest light source available: the sun. “Painters and photographers know the best light conditions are the two or three hours after sunrise and before sunset. They want to avoid shooting during the middle of the day. That way the light will look consistent, so the audience is not distracted from the story. To ensure consistent images all day long, a cinematographer often needs many tools to manipulate light.

“One of the most effective tools we use every day in cinematography is very cost-effective: reflectors. All sorts of reflectors have been used in the motion-picture business from the very beginning. In fact, even Renaissance painters used reflectors to help them light their subjects in a more pleasing manner.” (See sidebar.)

Augmenting available daylight with reflectors requires planning and staging according to the arc of the sun throughout the day. Burum offers, “When the studios used to have their large backlots, they oriented their streets so that they were built running north and south. As far back as the silent-film days, they’d always try to shoot toward the south, because that way they’d always have a consistent backlight and would be able to use reflectors to fill and model the actors’ faces. Reflectors were positioned on the actors in exactly the same way you’d use lamps on a stage.

 “You never want to plan your shoot for a whole day at a location that runs east or west, because you’ll only have half a day of consistent light. If you have a street running north and south, in the morning the west side of the street is lit and the east side is in shadow. If you choose to shoot in shadow, you’d start out in the morning shooting east. When the sun starts to flip over, you’d begin to turn around, shooting south into backlight; then, as the sun begins to set in the west, you’d shoot toward the west.

“In this manner, you can maintain a consistent look and map out your shots according to the direction in which you’re shooting,” Burum continues. “Also, you can plan to do all of your big wide shots early in the morning or later in the afternoon, while the sun angle is best. Then, while the sun is directly overhead and harsh, you can cover your actors with a silk and light them to best advantage, with reflectors doing all of your close-ups and medium shots. That’s one way you can effectively use the middle of the day [when the light is not ideal] and still shoot under the burden of a schedule.”

Burum stresses that reflected daylight is often overlooked as a technique for illuminating day-interior scenes. “You don’t always need lights in your location interiors,” he suggests. “You can use daylight coming through the windows and  augment that light with a few reflectors — such as mirrors if you want to get a sharp shaft of light and hard shadows, or a softer reflector like a silver, shiny board — angled outside to perhaps come in through a window off-camera. You can further refine the reflected light by putting up a bit of diffusion to soften it even more.

“On two of the films I shot, Casualties of War and The Untouchables, we built houses on location that were constructed so that the roofs could be removed, and I could then cover the top with muslin and use some neutral density or scrim on the windows. To balance between the light outside and the toplight from the muslin, it didn’t matter whether the sun was in or out; as the light changed, the balance between the two stayed the same.  With this method, all you have to do is change your f-stop. It works very efficiently.”

Maximizing the sun’s luminance by using reflectors as a source of light is an idea that goes back through the history of art. “Everybody wants to make pictures inexpensively and efficiently, but it’s not equipment that makes good photography, it’s a person’s mind,” says Burum. “If you understand what the principles are, you can use what’s around you. The question I always try to address in articles for AC is: ‘What is the underlying principle/’ Once you understand what that is, it’s up to your imagination to figure out how you can modify something that’s available to you. Where do you think all the gear we use today came from in the first place/ In the beginning, there were no companies like Matthews or Mole-Richardson!

“Now you can buy and/or rent all of these wonderful frames, reflectors and stands from the equipment-rental houses, but you may not be able to afford them,” he continues. “There are many substitute items you can find very inexpensively in a standard hardware store.