Viewing post #1007039 by dirtdorphins

William said:Dirt, a reflector doesn't need to be shiny. Something as simple as a white piece of paper is all that is needed. If placed below the subject it would remove some of the dark shadows, giving more details in the darks, essentially giving the impression of softer light. The risk of course is that if too much light is reflected one would end up with a very flat uninteresting light instead, making things worse, instead of better. This can happen real easy... Here I think only very little reflected light would be needed as the light is already pretty good .

Thanks! that's exactly where my imagination was going...to the risk end of things.
Of course, even a piece of paper below the subject is conjuring all sorts of contortions in my mind's eye--as far as how to get it there and still take the picture not to mention the very low probability of me ever seeing the need to fetch a piece of paper for such a purpose.

I suppose with lots of experience a person eventually learns to recognize when to subtly manipulate the already pretty good lighting.
Personally, I am still foolishly bewildered by my results when I look at photos I have taken in various lighting conditions. But, I am starting to get to the point where I can recognize hopelessly bad light and I no longer punish myself as much by taking so many bad photos at those times