I was pretty excited when Chelsea, of Chelsea K Designs wanted to do her session down at the Little Sahara Sand Dunes. There’s so many different ways to use light there and they are all so dang gorgeous. I brought my assistant, as usual, to use my reflector and I have a few thoughts about it for you Utah photographers out there. I wanted the light to stay dreamy and natural looking and was worried the silver would be too powerful (especially with all the light already reflecting off of the sand), SO I went with the WHITE side. Here’s a list of Pros and Cons to using the white:

Pros

1. The light wasn’t over powering, so everything still looked very natural
2. It didn’t cause any squinting even though everything was so bright already
3. It gave great catch-lights in my clients eyes for the first half of the session (you can see in the pictures below)

Cons

1. After the first half of the session was over, I wished I had the silver. White wasn’t giving the bounce I wanted
2. The reflector was so sandy and the wind was bad enough that switching to silver was too big of a pain (even with two of us) so I lived with the white and just used it as fill because I didn’t want to waste any shooting time.

If I were to do it over, I’d try the silver instead and ask my assistant to back WAY up while the sun is higher, so my clients don’t squint and so the bounce isn’t over-powering. I’m not convinced I’d like it better, but I know it would be really helpful towards the end of the session so I’d like to try it that way to compare. So my lesson learned was basically “pick your poison”. There are pros and cons to both and you have to decide what’s most important to you; unless you’re willing to give up precious time during your family session (in the sand and wind) to switch it.

 

Little Sahara

Utah County Family Photographer, Salt Lake City, Utah

@lexiraephotography