Umbrella alternatives ?

[mark4583]

I find sometimes when I am shooting inside my Umbrellas are just too big for the space I am in, would you recommend going with a small/med soft box? Im using SB-800's with a D750

[Manfred M]

Softboxes with their internal reflectors and baffles absorb light and really reduce output. I know a few people that do but in general they use between 2 and 4 speedlights inside the softbox to get a reasonable amount of light output. The issue with those rigs is that it is difficult to adjust the flash settings inside a softbox. I use softboxes all the time, but only with powerful studio flash.

Umbrellas come in all different sizes mine range from 32" through to 60". I've seen them as small as 20" and as large as 13 ft.

Size is really dependent on the size of your subject. Small ones are good for head shots and large ones work for full length shots. If space is tight, shoot through umbrellas take up a bit less space as you can get them quite close to the subject.

What subject matter are you shooting and how large are your current umbrellas?

Have you looked at bouncing light off of a reflector?

[mark4583]

yeah mine open up to about 43", Il have to look at some smaller ones

[rpcrowe]

Manfred Mentioned... "If space is tight, shoot through umbrellas take up a bit less space as you can get them quite close to the subject."

I totally agree to this and would like to add one thing. Sometimes when shooting with a shoot through umbrella in a tight space, a portion of the light will bounce back from the umbrella lighting the space in which you are shooting and resulting in less than total control of the light.

Using a shoot through umbrella with a black backing like the one shown image left



will prevent the stray light reflected back from the umbrella from you are shooting through from adding to the total exposure of your shot...

Here's one on eBay...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Promaster-P...70w:rk:49:pf:0

[Manfred M]

Sometimes when shooting with a shoot through umbrella in a tight space, a portion of the light will bounce back from the umbrella lighting the space in which you are shooting and resulting in less that total control of the light.

Great point Richard and while shoot through umbrellas are particularly prone to this issue, I find that as a rule this is a problem shooting with any kind of light modifier in a small room; the room itself is a significant light source from the reflected light.

This can be a good thing, if the room has neutral walls and ceilings as the reflected light can act as a fill light, but usually I find I have to move the light modifiers in close to the subject to take advantage of reflected light falling off from the inverse square law. I find I use a lot of flags when shooting in small spaces.