Rogue: a Super Soft Silver reflector

Silver reflectors are great… to reflect light. But sometimes they create hot spots that you would prefer not to have to deal with. Rogue has the solution: their Super Soft Silver fabric offers a softer light.

Rogue’s reflector looks like any other reflector you can buy: round, collapsible, and available in 32” (80cm). It has a white side and a silver side. The difference, though, is that the Rogue Super Soft Silver reflector aims to offer softer fill light and avoid hot spots in your fill light. To achieve that Rogue designed their own Super Soft Silver custom fabric to make a better 2-in-1 reflector.  Other silver reflectors, states the company, “are typically made with inferior fabrics and a shiny silver surface which often produces a harsher fill light than desirable, especially when used with bright light sources.”

Rogue’s custom Super Soft Silver fabric makes a more durable and longer lasting reflector that’s easier to use because it produces a bright fill light while eliminating the hot spots so commonly associated with shiny silver reflectors. The Super Soft Silver provides more kick than white fabric, while avoiding the harshness of the mirror like reflections produced by shiny silver reflectors.  Those photographers who  have used it say that the reflected light from this reflector is less directional and you will not see the hot spots you will get with shiny silver reflectors. That’s quite interesting and something I could think about using when I pick up a reflector for my flower photography. I wonder, also, if it can be used for video and offer similar results.

Photographer Erik Valind demonstrates, in a video (see above), how to fill in shadows with ambient light using the Rogue Super Soft Silver/Natural White reflector and shows the difference between standard silver reflectors and the new Rogue Super Soft Silver Reflector.

Even when it comes to white, the white on this reflector is different, what Rogue calls Natural White, remarkably neutral, providing a more natural and pleasing fill light. This is due to one thing: no optical brighteners are used in the base fabric.  Optical brighteners reflect more blue light, which means you will add a bluish tint on your subject.  Optical brighteners are common in the base fabric of most other reflectors, according to Rogue.

The custom fabric used in the reflector is heavy duty and the coating is thicker than most of the common reflectors so it should last longer.  The reflector is available for $29.95 for the 32” round version (which collapses to 12″ diameter to easily stow in a gear bag), but Rogue will also have a 20”x40” rectangle for the same price. There may be a larger version, 30”x45” in the future, I was told when asking more information about the product. Price is not yet defined. You’ll find more information about the Rogue 2-in-1 Super Soft Silver collapsible reflector following the link.