Coupling our capabilities in light source manufacture and spectroscopy allows us to manufacture complete systems such as our Sciencetech Tunable Light Source.

If I didn’t have the wall reflecting light back at me my face would have been dark and the background super blown out. So the reflected light worked as fill light to brighten my face.

A light source is a complete system capable of illumination, consisting of a lamp, a lamp housing, a power supply, and necessary optics, cables, and hardware. Sciencetech manufactures a variety of light sources with applications for both research and industry. For more information about our light sources and capabilities select a product group below and contact us at sales contact today!

A while ago I updated my Facebook profile photo and my friends went mad commenting that I looked so young and couldn’t believe we were the same age. There was no magic involved, I haven’t had any “work done” and I didn’t edit my skin to look like plastic.

Diffused reflection occurs when a ray of light strikes a rough surface and is then scattered away at different angles, because of the different angles of the rough surface.

Great insights on reflected light! I never realized how much it could enhance portraits. The tips about using natural reflectors are especially helpful. Can’t wait to experiment with my next shoot!

The easiest way to explain the difference between specular reflection and diffused reflection is to show you with a diagram.

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Another bonus was that it was a white surface, so white light was reflected back at me, with no color cast to mess with my skin tones.

The wall added a second light source, so I was backlit by the sun and front lit by the reflected light. When you can add a light source to a photo it makes the image more interesting and elevates it above a snapshot.

Reflected light takes on the color cast of the surface used to reflect it. So, when you bounce light off of a green surface (like in the image above), you’ll cast a green light onto your subject.

Before we get into the details of using reflected light in photography, you should know that there are two ways to light a subject:

In other words it’s light (any type of light, natural or artificial) that doesn’t shine directly onto the subject. It’s first shone onto a surface and then reflected back to the subject.

Light coming from beneath a person is unflattering, unless it’s used as a fill light just to fill in and soften shadows beneath the chin, under the nose and under the eyes in a clamshell lighting set up.

I’d simply stood facing a white painted brick wall with the sun shining from behind me onto the wall. So my skin was smoothed out by the super soft, diffused light reflecting back at me. I can’t think of a better reason to use reflected light!

This is why photographing on green grass in midday sun results in sickly looking skin tones that you then need to color correct in post. The light comes down from above, hits the grass and bounces green light straight back up into the subject.

SCIENCETECH offers light sources from UV to Infrared. A complete light source typically includes the lamp mounted in a housing with condensing/coupling optics, a power supply and all the necessary cables and hardware. For spectroscopic applications, a DC stabilized power supply is required. Arc sources also include a stand-alone igniter to break down the gas and establish the plasma discharge. A full line of accessories such as light condensers and collimators, filters, optical feedback units output stabilization and light shutters are available.

Reflected light is often also called bounced light, especially when created with flash, which is why we also talk about bouncing light back into shot.

Our expertise extends to Sciencetech Solar Simulators which are broad band light sources with specific spectral and radiant intensity properties.

Hi! I'm Jane Allan, professional portrait photographer and founder of The Lens Lounge - photography tutorials and online courses. Here to help you create the photos you dream of by sharing everything I've learned.

Also, I love good news, so if my photography lighting tips have helped you to understand what is reflected light, share that too.

Deuterium and Dual Deuterium Tungsten . Deuterium (D2) sources are ideal for UV spectroscopy since they have a high ultraviolet output with little visible and infrared emission. UV grade fused silica envelopes can also be used, instead of the standard UV glass envelope, for missions below 180 nm.

Lastly, the large surface area of the wall changed the light source into a large light source. In photography the larger the light source relative to the subject, the softer the light will be.

When you bounce light off a large surface close to the subject, you make the light source bigger, so the light is softer. And soft light is flattering on skin.

Xenon Arc lamp Light Sources.  Arc lamps contain plasma confined in a quartz envelope, which produces radiation from 200nm to 2.5um. They have a very strong ultraviolet output and, since the emitting plasma volume is very small, their brightness in the visible region is approximately one order of magnitude higher than that of QTH sources, making them excellent for illuminating small targets. The main arc bulb types are Xenon (Xe), Mercury (Hg), Mercury-Xenon (Hg-Xe) and metal halide under high pressure for maximum brightness.

Of course you can’t rely on a handy white painted brick wall being nearby every time you take a photo, so how do you create reflected light anywhere, any time?

Quartz Tungsten Halogen. (QTH) Light from QTH lamps is emitted by a heated filament. The filament is enclosed in a quartz envelope filled with gases. The spectral distribution is close to that of a blackbody curve with a color temperature of approximately 3000°K. QTH lamps have a useful spectral output from 300nm to 2.7µm.

The quick explanation to what is reflected light in photography is any light that hits a reflective surface and is reflected back onto the subject in a photo. Some surfaces are more reflective than others and some are the wrong color, so the type of surface used to reflect light is very important and we’ll get into that in a moment.