Natural light portraits with a simple reflector.

One of the things I really enjoy when shooting at a wedding is the opportunity to take lovely natural light portraits. I will always try to capture one of the bride, but it's also a great opportunity to capture some lovely images of the kids who may be present on the day. Kids tend to pose quite naturally and they also love to be in front of the camera. I tend to focus on head and shoulder shots and use the trusty Nikon D200 and Sigma 50mm F1.4. I normally select an aperture of around F2.0 and with an equivalent 75mm focal length it produces lovely sharp images where the closest eye is in sharp focus and the background is a lovely blur of light and colour. The Sigma produces lovely Bokeh and stopped down just slightly, the lens is razor sharp. I use a reflector in most cases to punch some light back towards the subject and this also provides lovely catch lights in their eyes.

Nikon D200 with Sigma 50mm F1.4 ISO 200, F2.8 @ 1/350 sec

Simple reflector setup for the image above. The little girl was under
 a tree canopy and the reflector was positioned in such
 a way that it would help direct sunlight back towards her.  

For the image above, a gold reflector was used to add some warmth. It was a very bright day so I decided to move the subject/s into the shade for the shoot. This by itself would have resulted in a cool feel to the photographs so using the gold side of the reflector seemed the natural choice.

I also like to get the subject looking up towards me slightly so try where possible to get them sitting on a bench or chair. I find that by doing this it adds a bit more definition and stronger outline to the face. 

Nikon D200 with Sigma 50mm F1.4 ISO 250, F2.0 @ 1/160 sec

A silver reflector was used on the third photograph. The slightly cooler feel worked really well with the surrounds of the room. Natural light from a large window to the left of shot was used and the reflector was held to the right pointing back towards the window, kicking light onto the subjects left side and helping lift heavy shadow.