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it's probably quite tricky to be
a superstitious
studio photographer if you use umbrellas
so i've got two similar umbrellas
they're the same size the same shape but
clearly different in design this is the
shoot through translucent umbrella and
this is your classic silver reflective
umbrella they work in similar ways but
give very different results i'm gavin
hoey and you're watching adoramatv in
this video i'm going to show you the
differences between each umbrella and
try and help you to decide which one of
them might be better for your small home
studio
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now before i get a model in and start
testing it in the real world the best
thing to do is actually do some tests
and just show you very quickly how these
differ in their light pattern so let's
start with the silver umbrella
so my idea is to show you the spread of
light against the white wall of my
studio of the two types of umbrella but
to make it even i'll use exactly the
same flashpoint explore 300 at 1 16
power same position same same everything
you get the idea the silver umbrella
your subject your model is supposed to
be this side light hits the silver
bounces back onto your model the other
side remains nice and dark that's the
idea let's see how the light spreads out
here we go
and yep it does exactly what you would
expect the dark side is dark not
completely black because light still
bounces around my small home studio and
the bright side is pretty bright in fact
i meted f8 right here which gives me
quite a lot of light output
okay so let's try exactly the same thing
but this time with the shoot through or
translucent umbrella now the clue is
actually in the name shoot through
because your subject should be on this
side with the light coming through this
way let's see how that changes the light
pattern and it changes it an awful lot
because we've got light going everywhere
here it's going forwards where it's
supposed to it's bouncing off the back
of the umbrella as well in fact there's
not really any real shadows in this
picture at all
looking at the exposure the same
distance as i had before is now reading
f 5.6 and the same distance on the
reverse is reading f4 so there is
actually only one stop of light
difference between the front and the
back of this shoot through umbrella
so it's perhaps not surprising that
there is quite a difference between
these two umbrellas and i can make a few
generalizations so i can say the silver
umbrella has much more direction and
control to the light but look at the
wall and you'll notice it's a little bit
mottled it's not perfectly evenly lit
unlike the shoot through umbrella where
the wall is very evenly lit but light
goes absolutely everywhere meaning
there's very little control of its
direction
to help me out today i've got the
amazing sophie
sophie is going to be the model for this
shoot and let's start by doing just a
straightforward head and shoulder shot
so i need an umbrella let's bring this
in
so i'm going to start with the
translucent shoot through umbrella and
one of the big advantages of this
umbrella is just how close you can get
it to your subject now the closer you
get it the bigger it is from their point
of view and therefore the softer the
light becomes and i like to get my shoot
through umbrellas really close probably
around about there let's take a shot
like this and see how it looks okay
sophie if you can look straight down the
lens of the
camera and that works really nicely we
have some great lighting on sophie it's
soft it's wrap around it's flattering
it's a great light source
so now i'm going to switch over to the
reflective umbrella i've already turned
the light around but it's not moved it's
still in the same place now you need to
be a little bit more careful with
reflective umbrellas because the the
shaft sticks down and you can catch
yourself on the shaft or worse the model
so this is about as close as i would
like to put it however the surface of
the umbrella is now further away than it
was with the translucent shoot through
umbrella so you might think i'm going to
lose some power but remember how these
umbrellas work this one takes all of the
light and pushes it forwards so although
i haven't changed the flash power let's
see what results we get
here we go sophie
and the end result is surprisingly about
the same flash exposure that looks
really good but when you look at them
side by side you can see that the
shadows from the reflective umbrella are
just a little bit more crisp and the
highlights are just a little bit more
specular or bright compared to the
softer light from the shoot through
white
umbrella so i've switched over to the
shoot through umbrella because that's
what i actually like to use with this
sort of tight head and shoulder shot i
think it gives the nicest light and we
can just take a few photos like this so
sophie are you ready yeah okay let's
take some shots
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to make this fairly static setup a
little bit more dynamic i'm going to
introduce a little bit of a breeze
thanks to a small leaf blower
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there's actually one thing that both of
these umbrellas have in common and it's
just how easy it is
to get it wrong by which i mean the
distance between your flash and the
surface of your umbrella because you
might think quite logically that the
best place would be to have your
umbrella far away like that so there's
plenty of room for the light to fill the
surface of your umbrella maximum
efficiency
the trouble is what you end up with is
like passing the edges of your umbrella
and that is really bright uncontrolled
light that's just going anywhere and
everywhere and causing you problems
in fact the best place in my opinion for
your umbrella is roughly the edge of the
umbrella in line with the front edge of
your flash but of course your kit might
be slightly different so take a few
minutes to test it just like i've done
here
and of course there's absolutely nothing
stopping you putting your flash all the
way into the center of your umbrella
it's going to give you a little bit
different light output usually with a
bit more control and direction
as you can see i've changed things
around a little bit and got this corner
area we've got sophie sat down this is
definitely going to be a much wider lit
shot than before but do i still want to
use the shoot through umbrella bearing
in mind that a shooter umbrella will
give me a broader spread of light
because it's going to bounce light all
over the place you might think that's
the best choice let's just take a shot
and see how it looks okay sophie here we
go
and the end result is
well pretty evenly lit but there's no
character to the lighting it's very flat
very safe very sensible so let's switch
to the reflective umbrella and see how
that looks
now remember the reflective umbrella
gives me more direction to the light
it's more efficient as a light as well
so i need to check the power is still at
f 5.6 which it is
okay let's just take a shot like this
and see how it looks
here we go sophie
and the difference is immediately
noticeable there's more graduation in
the shadows at the top of the picture
it's a little bit more punchy
and of course i can move the light so
let's move this in towards the edge of
the frame and over towards the side for
a bit more direction to the light the
other thing i'm going to do is what we
looked at earlier i'm actually going to
take the light and pull it right into
the center to give me really a direct
punchy light i'm looking for some light
that's going to come down the side here
and like sophie but leave the edges of
my picture a little bit darker let's
take this as a test shot see how it
looks
here we go
and now we're getting something really
dramatic that looks absolutely brilliant
i love that
and of course no one says you have to
use one umbrella or the other umbrella
you can mix them together so let's add
in a
shoot through umbrella into the scene
now you might be wondering why do i need
to shoot through umbrella well maybe
you'd like to fill in the shadows a
little bit and this with its nice
bounced even light is the perfect
lighting to do that i've set it really
low so it's just going to add a little
bit of fill light into the shadows it's
not going to be the main light that is
still the reflective umbrella okay let's
take a few shots like this sophie are
you ready
okay here we go
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holding a book is all well and good but
maybe we should try something a little
bit more left-field like oh i don't know
getting sophie to balance the books on
her head well why not
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all right
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so if you're wondering which of these
umbrellas should you get the reflective
umbrella or the shoot through umbrella
the answer is really simple
get both of them because they are both
really useful in their own way and as
you use them you might find you
gravitate to one more than the other for
example i tend to prefer the shoot
through umbrella and of course let's
face it when it comes to photography
equipment these are about as cheap as
they get now if you've enjoyed this
video or you've got any questions leave
me a comment down below click on the
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button i'm gavin hoey thanks for
watching