Head to head

Flashgun or reflector, which is best for fill-in lighting for your portraits?

If you want to add some fill-in light to your portraits, should you use a Speedlight or a reflector? We weigh up the options…

Nikon Speedlight SB-700

Max power Gn 28 (metres at ISO100) recycle time 2.5 seconds (full power) Variable power 1/1 to 1/128 light colours Daylight, incandescent, fluorescent batteries 4x AA size 71x126x105mm weight 360g price £259/$330 The SB-700 is the best choice for an own-brand Nikon flashgun that offers premium performance and versatility at a sensible price. It has a bounce, swivel and zoom head, along with wireless slave triggering for off-camera use with compatible DSLRS.

For fill-in flash, the SB-700 works well in TTL-BL (Through The Lens – Balanced Light) mode. For the most natural results you might often need to bounce the flash or use it off-camera. You might also need to adjust the camera exposure and flash power manually.

The SB-700 emits light with a daylight colour temperature, which works fine for outdoor fill-in flash. It’s also supplied complete with two colour filters to balance the colour temperature with incandescent (tungsten) or fluorescent indoor lighting.

You often need to be careful to avoid a flashgun overpowering ambient light when shooting indoors, which can give artificial results. Where possible, it’s best to bounce the flash off a white wall or ceiling, instead of using the supplied diffusion dome.

Under bright daylight, you’ll often need to use a narrow aperture to avoid exceeding the sync speed of your camera. Or you can use Auto FP mode at higher shutter speeds, if supported in your camera, but the flashgun’s maximum power will be diminished.

Lastolite Trigrip Reflector

Max power

Source light dependent recycle time Always ready Variable power No light colours White, silver, soft silver, sunfire, gold batteries Not required size 75cm weight 600g price £67/$70 This triangular shaped light reflector is available in a range of 45cm, 75cm and 1.2m sizes, finished in white, soft silver, silver, sunfire or gold. The 75cm option is generally the most ideal, and comes in a range of double-sided, dual-colour options.

Reflectors can be fiddly to use but the Trigrip has a built-in handle, so you can easily shoot with the camera in one hand and the reflector in the other. As with other ‘pop-up’ reflectors, it folds down to a third of its operating size for stowing in the supplied bag.

Using the silver or white Trigrip reflectors, you’re assured of maintaining the same colour temperature as the main source of light, with greater or lesser reflective power. The sunfire and gold options add progressively more warmth to the reflected light.

When shooting indoors, the reflector works best if you can utilize a strong source of light, for example daylight coming in through a window. Placing the reflector closer to the subject increases the amount of reflected light, and gives the light a softer quality.

Unlike when using flash, there are no shutter speed restrictions, enabling you to use wider apertures to throw backgrounds out of focus. The overall exposure setting is easy to adjust, and you can preview the effect the reflector’s placement will have on the shot.