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I’ve been trying to get better at capturing the subtle textures in things like weathered wood or fabric in my still life shots. My main issue is that even with a softbox, the shadows feel too deep and I lose the fine detail I’m after. I’m wondering if a reflector is the right tool to add just a bit of fill without flattening the image completely.

I started with a tiny white reflector off to the side, not in front, and it nudged the shadows just enough. Not flattening, just a whisper of fill, and I kept the texture in the grain.

Moving the softbox closer and a touch higher helped a bit, but the shadows still swallowed the fine lines on weathered wood.

I taped a plain white card to a stand and angled it about 45 degrees. The difference was subtle, but on the canvas fabric you could see more of the weave when the card picked up from the side.

Sometimes I worry the real issue is exposure and dynamic range more than fill. RAW, but pulling shadows up adds noise and kills micro-contrast in the texture.

There was a day I tried going almost flat and ramping up the shadow detail in post, and the texture looked crisper online but grainy in person; I dropped that idea.

I drifted off-topic briefly and tried a polarizer on the window for the wood shot, and it did tame glare a bit, which oddly helped the texture read when the light was more directional earlier.

Do you think the problem is the light angle rather than how much fill you need?

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