It's too often that photographers can over-complicate a shoot with ideas involving multiple lights, flags, and other modifiers. Some shoots, in reality, call for a much more simple approach. Watch as Jeff Rojas demonstrates how to use window light, harness it, and use it to assist him in filling in deep shadows.
If you've never visited Jeff's home base, New York City, you'll first need to know that most hotel rooms where an intimate couples shoot like this would happen, can be smaller than the standard hotel room. Because the room is smaller, we'll avoid breaking out too much equipment and stick with some basics.
First we know the room is equipped with a floor to ceiling window. A large window like this is phenomenal for photographing in the city. The buildings are often tall enough to block direct sunlight, but provide bounced light to flow into the room and softly illuminate our subjects.
With the giant window providing beautiful soft light, comes one caveat, directional light that will ultimately provide a shadow on our subject. These shadows can be troublesome if the contrast becomes too distracting. To combat the shadows, we can use one of the handiest tools in our bag, a Rogue 32" Super Soft Silver/Natural White Collapsible Reflector.
This isn't your everyday run-of-the-mill reflector, however. The Rogue Super Soft Silver/Natural White Reflector provides less contrast and specularity compared to a "shiny silver" reflector; think of it like a "matte" silver. Most importantly this means the light reflected back on our subjects won't be much different in quality compared to the light falling on them from the window.
In addition, the opposite side of the reflector has what's called "Natural White" or a white without any coating additives that is incredibly neutral and provides and incredibly soft and subtle fill. Using a reflector in this situation rather than a flash allows for more maneuverability and quicker scenes in a smaller space.
This technique of using less equipment will also allow me to focus more on the subject and kickstart conversations with them so the posing and attitude appears more relaxed. While I could have opted for an assistant, it would have been more crowded in the room and a reflector is easy enough to pick up and put down with one hand to direct the subjects.
Final Images:
