Lighting with umbrella

[Tom J McDonald]

Hello folks,

So I've been doing a fair bit portrait photography using a single flash with an umbrella lately.
Sometimes I'd like the light to be more concentrated/directed than it is with the umbrella; it just goes everywhere.

Are there any practical methods of directing the light and having more control over where it goes using an umbrella? I'd like sometimes to keep it away from the background etc...

Thanks in advance!

Tom.

[vinny]

An umbrella is the wrong choice if you want to control spill. You can get fabric grids for some models though. You'd be better off going with a direct source say through a softbox w/grid or other modifier with grid. Moving your light to the side always helps get it off the background as well but you know that.

[Alan Gales]

You can tilt your umbrella to the side away to control the quantity of light but you will still get soft lighting like Vinny said. Barn doors are cheap and fantastic for dramatic lighting. They give you a lot of control.

[Jim Michael]

Some controls to use with your umbrella. Also use inverse square law to your advantage and move away from the background. The softbox with grid would really be the way to go though.

[Alan Gales]

One more thing to add. If the flash with barn doors is too harsh for the look you are after then just hang some gauze over them to soften them a bit.

[lenser]

Tom,

If your umbrella is backed with black cloth you are in better shape for controlling spill out the back as just white or shoot through are pretty tough to get any control of scatter light. It just goes through and bounces all over the room.

If black backed is what you have, you can make decent barn doors from black corrugated plastic material that almost any plastics company (at least here in the states) has. I think it's called chorplast or something like that. Attached with really strong double sided office clips to each side of the the umbrella, it allows for movements in and out and serves to both gobo the light off the background and tunnel it toward the subject.

Umbrellas are still better used for fill light where they are directed at the subject and are just to fill shadows.

You get way more control of both the light direction and spill from a soft box. When you feather those away from the background, the recess does a great job of controlling spill. Adding an egg crate style of grid helps much more.

As with umbrellas, the bigger the source, the softer the light.

[Tom J McDonald]

Thanks guys.

I have been movng my umbrella so it doesn't shine on the background but I've been very worried about flare since it's pointing at the camera. Although I haven't had a problem the two times I've done it (noticeable to me anyway).

I have been considering a soft-box as I have heard also elsewhere you can more easily control/prevent spill.

Tim, the idea about the makeshift barndoors sounds attractive, and also similar to what I had in mind (although I was just thinking of hanging some dark cloths over where I would like to prevent light shining.

My umbrella is actually backed with black material, but it has silver inside it.

My biggest problem I think is the working space I have. It's frustratingly small and the light just illuminates the whole room!

Thanks guys.

[lenser]

Tom,

Only my opinion, but you couldn't give me a silver umbrella. I like soft light and silver is super specular and bright which for me is just a big FORGET IT. In studio, I only use white umbrellas for fill and then only in line with the subject's nose to avoid any possible double shadows.

In the field, as in an in-home portrait, they are okay (maybe better than a soft box) because in a large family room, you actually do want lots of bounce light as well as directional so you illuminate the room as well as the subjects. Natural fall off will keep the subjects as the center of attention, but still allow detail to be seen in the background unless the room is super deep.

Those sheets of plastic material I mentioned actually come in 4x8 sheets. They are also quite inexpensive, so you could buy two or three and use them as big gobo's on either side of the umbrella to block light from both the background and the lens. Very light weight, so just balance them against a stool.

[Tom J McDonald]

Tim,
I have been unhappy also with the way the light looks on people. But I thought it was my technique. It looks harsh and contrasty, like bad household lighting or something.

I'll try a white-lined one and have a look how it goes.

[Frank Petronio]

Well it is where you aim it ;-)

A smaller umbrella might be better, as would getting your lighting as physically close as possible to the subject, just outside the camera's framing. I've even retouched out umbrella stems if needed.