Photography - Need a cheap portable reflector for portrait/product photography?

Using reflectors is a very inexpensive solution for portrait/product lighting. In some cases, using a flash to fill in shadows is impossible if you want to use a fast lens wide open to blur the background, because of the limited sync speed most SLRs have. So reflectors may be the only practical solution. They cost $20-60 and you can use them in all sorts of ways to enhance the portraits/products you are shooting :

Westcott 301 Photo Basics 40-Inch 5-in-1 Reflector
ePhoto 32" 5 in 1 Photography Portrait Studio Collapsible  32"REF



But if you are on a really tight budget, even these may be too expensive for you.

Luckily, if all you need is a silver reflector (which is what I've been using most of the time), you have a much less expensive alternative. A winshield shade like this one :

MAGIC SUNSHADE STANDARD (REPLACES 20001)


is nearly identical in construction with the reflectors above, folds flat and small and it's very light. It only costs (now) $7.79 and you get two panels. You may even already have one in the trunk!