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Using Umbrellas? Please Stop Doing This
I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.
||
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||
Typically, education and imparting knowledge is about showing you the right way to do something rather than scolding you for doing it the supposed ‘wrong’ way.
But I’ve just seen a thread where ‘photographers’ are sharing how they prematurely ‘weather’ their brand-new £8,000 Leicas with electric sanders! Some of you simply can’t be trusted to make the right decision!
Rant aside, I’ve been meaning to put together a few of these umbrella tips for a while now and, as my somewhat exasperated title suggests, it’s going to be just as important to tell you what not to do as it is to point out what you should be doing.
This image is shot using only umbrellas - Umbrellas are excellent modifiers and offer a lot of light control in the right hands - but we need to be aware of and avoid several aspects of umbrellas to get the best out of them.
Please Stop: Having the umbrella too far out.
This is a simple one to fix, but failing to watch out for it will result in not only losing a lot of power and light but also a lot of control of the light.
If the umbrella isn't close enough to the light, then not all of the light will go into the umbrella to be bounced back. Some of that light will be lost out past the edges, and not only will this reduce the light output bouncing back, but you will also have uncontrolled light being pumped out into the studio.
The Fix
Simply walk to the edge of the umbrella and look back at the reflector dish. If you can see the bulb of your light, that means light can escape from the umbrella.
If that’s the case, push the umbrella rod further into the holder until you can no longer see the bulb from the edge.
Note: If you’re using a strobe, be sure that it’s the flash tube you can’t see. Remember that the modelling bulb is not what will spread the light in the final image.
Please Stop: Having the umbrella too close.
This issue is less troublesome than having the umbrella too far away and spreading the light everywhere, but having the umbrella too close to the light is still easily fixed and will result in far better-looking results.
When you’re setting up your particular shot, you’ve likely/hopefully given some thought to the size of the modifiers you’d like to use and, in this case, the size of your umbrella. If you’ve opted for a large umbrella on set, that’s because you wanted a more significant spread of light or at least a softer light on the subject. Sadly, by placing your umbrella too close to your light, you’ll get neither of these things as you've now turned your big soft light into a small hard light.
You can see in the image above that the light is so close to the umbrella that it has no time to spread and use the full size of the umbrella.
In the image above, you can see that the light is only falling onto a small section in the middle of the umbrella. It doesn’t matter how big your umbrella is if you only use a small section of it. It’s this small section of the umbrella that is bouncing light back, and as we know, the smaller the light, the harder the light looks.
The Fix
Hopefully, this won't be revolutionary to many of you, but yes, to fix this, we simply pull the umbrella further away from the light so that the light can better fill the umbrella size you’ve chosen.
Even pulling the umbrella back a few inches can make a huge difference to the resulting light.
I know I’m being cheeky here, and for many of you, this may seem obvious, but I can’t tell you how often I’ve seen the light far too close to the umbrella—I even saw it in a recent lighting product video! It’s easy to do but also easy to avoid.
It’s a simple thing to keep an eye on, but look at how dramatically different the image above looks compared to the original, where the umbrella was too close to the light. I probably only moved the umbrella 6 inches away, but now that light is completely filling the umbrella compared to a very small spot in the middle.
Please Stop: Placing the umbrella to the side.
This mistake is a little more nuanced, so I’ll allow it. Thankfully though, although many make this simple error when placing their umbrella, once you’ve seen the difference by making this small adjustment, you won’t make that mistake again…. will you?!
The mistake is to assume that just because your modifier, the umbrella, is above the subject, it is casting flattering light from above. Sadly, although the top of the modifier is indeed above the subject, most of the light is still coming from below the subject, and this is what can catch some people out.
Most of the light is clearly coming up from below the subject even though the modifier is technically above the subject.
As we can see in the image above, the top of the umbrella is indeed above the subject, but too much light is coming up from below, resulting in that ugly under-light.
The Fix
The trick here is simple. Like many aspects of lighting, the key is not to look at where or what your light is doing but at what it is doing to the subject. It doesn’t matter how accurately you've positioned your light; if the light looks bad on the subject, you have to change it.
By making a simple adjustment we can significantly improve the quality of light on our subject.
Simply raise the height of the light and angle the umbrella down, and that will very quickly fix the issue. As you can see from the image above, just moving that light up a few inches and adjusting the angle can make a huge difference, and you can see just how much more flattering that light is on the subject as a result.
Please Stop: USING SHOOT-THROUGH UMBRELLAS!
This will likely ruffle a few feathers, and I promise you, I’m not simply just rage-baiting you for engagement here, but using shoot-through umbrellas is borderline unforgivable in today's photography.
Sure, if you’re shooting pet passport photos in the stairwell of a shopping mall carpark in Sterling Heights, Detroit, go wild, use your shoot-through umbrellas all you want. For everybody else though, you have no excuse!
There are a couple of reasons why shoot-through umbrellas are bad, but ultimately, it comes down to a lack of light control.
1% of lighting is about the actual light itself. Any fool can turn a light on, but the other 99% of lighting comes from controlling that light and shoot-throughs do very little of that. Here’s why.
If you’re unfamiliar with shoot-through umbrellas, you’ve come to the end of the article; you don’t need to see the lighting heresy I’m about to display, so thank you so much for reading.
This modifier is pointed directly at me…. look at how much light is being pumped back into to the studio behind it!!!!
For everyone else, let the depravity begin.
The Fix - BURN THEM ALL
As the name implies, you fire the light through the umbrella, so unlike all other umbrellas, you actually point the light directly at the subject rather than away from them and into the reflective umbrella. One of the umbrella’s greatest strengths is the fact that it eliminates hot-spots by getting you to point the light away from the subject. Their bounced and reflected light is actually very even and flattering, especially for such an affordable modifier, and that is mostly due to their ability to eliminate hot-spots. Shoot-throughs don’t care about hot-spots, and like softboxes, they love a good bright centre unhindered by the beauty of bounced light. But at least softboxes actually control the light!
The other and more significant issue with shoot-through umbrellas, is their utter disregard for controlling the light. As I said, at least softboxes are enclosed modifiers that control the light in a uniform direction: forward. Shoot-through umbrellas, on the other hand, have a completely open back, and as such, a vast amount of light never actually makes it through the shoot-through part; instead, it simply bounces back out the back and then proceeds to bounce around the studio in no discernible manner.
Shoot-through umbrellas have almost no light control! The light literally goes everywhere!
In the above image, you’ll see just how much light is being passed through the shoot-through umbrella and just how much light is bouncing back into the studio. This bounced light is completely uncontrolled and will very quickly ruin shadow density and shadow transitions. It will also bounce off other areas in the space and include that surrounding bounced colour onto whatever it ultimately hits.
On the other hand, regular umbrellas do a great job of controlling the light in one direction.
Above, we see what a normal umbrella does to the light. All of that light is caught and then bounced back out in a very controllable manner. Look at how the other side of the modifier is completely dark. No spilt light is bouncing around the studio.
Lastly. I promise…
You likely didn’t notice this above, as the image was covered in red arrows, but thanks to the shoot-through fabric, there are two very distinct colours present in this shot. As the light is passed through the umbrella surface, it has warmed the light slightly compared to the bounced light, which is noticeably colder by comparison.
All light will be coloured slightly by whatever it passes through - its just we never typically allow those colours to mix!
This isn’t a huge deal-breaker or anything, but it’s simply another reason (if you really needed another) why these shoot-through umbrellas are truly awful modifiers.
Closing Comments
Sure, I took some artistic license with this article to add a little dramatic posturing about why I think people are making some silly mistakes when using umbrellas…
But I want to make this last point abundantly clear: I think umbrellas are excellent modifiers.
I haven't used a softbox for many, many years, yet I’ll use at least one if not multiple, umbrellas on nearly every single shoot I do. Umbrellas truly control the light, even when used close to the subject, and they do so without the nasty hot-spotting that softboxes produce.
Shot using only umbrellas
I have huge umbrellas, small umbrellas, white umbrellas and silver umbrellas. They are extremely versatile, weigh almost nothing, take up almost no space, and take mere seconds to set up. When I bought my first studio lighting kits all those years ago, I immediately threw the included umbrellas in the attic and forgot about them. I instead opted to get a small platoon of softboxes in every size imaginable; after all, the cheap and crappy umbrellas cant be any good, right?
Many years later, I dug around in the attic to retrieve those old umbrellas, and I still use them to this day. Just because a modifier is cheap doesn’t mean it can't be good; you just have to know how to use it properly.
As always, thank you for reading, and if you learnt nothing else today, please burn every shoot-through umbrella you come across! You’re doing the lighting-gods’ work!
I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.
||
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||
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I livestream every other Tuesday night via YouTube and there I answer your questions, critique your shots, take community images into Photoshop to work on them and discuss all manner of lighting tips and techniques. I look forward to seeing you and your work there real soon. Jake Hicks Photography - YouTube
