Umbrellas - Bounch or shoot-through

Hi Guys,


I'm new to the flash/strobist world and I'd like to buy a couple of umbrellas. Can someone explain to me the difference between a shoot through and a bounce umbrella in terms of results.


Cheers


Rob.

shoot through will give better results with low powered flashes as they generally lose less light than bounced.

results are good both ways, but bounced tend to have more even lighting without the hotspot you'll get from a shoot through.

not so much an issue of which is better, but an issue of using whichever you got properly. Which means it depends on many factors including the subject matter.

an example might be a group shot indoors:

using shoot throughs, I'd place the lights wide apart at 45 deg angles on either side of the camera aiming the hotspots to the people furthest from the umbrella, to feather the light on the people nearest the umbrella, to get nice light all the way across. (both lights equal power)

using bounce, I might prefer to have one light over the camera lens pointed down at the group, and one under the lens pointed out towards the group for fill light. (main light 0.5-1.5 stops brighter than fill)

in both cases the subjects will wind up being evenly lit with main and fill light balanced to give pleasing soft light with a proper ratio of main to fill light for modelling.

Interesting approach, having one light high and the other low. I'll have to try it.

G

think big...big umbrellas or softboxes for best results.....
butterfly lighting.....soft butterfly shaped shadow cast under the nose....

Cheers Don. What do you think of the brolly box'es? They seem to offer the advantages of a softbox with the price and ease of umbrellas.

Like this one.

http://www.fotosupplies.co.uk/Umbrellas/Product100.aspx


Cheers


Rob.

Look out for brollies which do both: translucent white (for shoot through) with a removable black outer cover for bounce, two of these will give you a lot of versatility. Having said that you can do a lot with just one.

This was taken in a very tight place with one head tucked into a corner of the room with the light coming directly through a white brolly and with some being reflected off the ceiling and the wall behind the camera. I had intended to use a soft box outdoors firing through a window to the right but a gale was blowing outdoors!
DS with 18-55DA @ 18mm, 1/160 @ f7.1, everything on manual

I say use anything. from white foamcore, tinfoil and cardboard, bedsheet, strobes, hotlights, mirrors, whatever. the only good advice is this...if you're spending your hard earned money....get the best quality you can afford. look for build quality.

then practice with it till you've learned to get the most out of it. for best results, in portraits get those lights as close to your subject as you can. softness in light is subject to the size of the light source relative to the size of the subject. the sun is huge, but because it is soo far away it appears small, and therefor creates a hard light on the subject

look at the elinchrom quadra (largest square softbox, under lighting solutions) to see what I use, and you'll notice a similarity between it and an umbrella, it actually is a giant umbrella and sets up in seconds!!! it's like four feet across!
http://elinchrom.com/

Can't emphasise this enough Really, really close.
I have a cheap Hama shoot through brolley that I use with the AF360 & AF540 in wide angle wireless mode - and for a head and shoulders you can do with it only just out of shot. (It's almost uncomfortably close for the sitter but creates such a wonderful soft light )

You might also pop down to an electrical retailer... they often have huge sheets of polystyrene that are thrown away. Make great reflectors

Matt

Thanks guys - I bought a brolly box in the end from ebay from fotosupplies. Very good product at an exceptional price of 17 pound delivered. Really pleased and the preliminary results are excellent.

Cheers


Rob.

Interesting thread. Nice illustration image Gartmore.

I have just started using a white brolly with two 360 FGZ flashes and my K10D pop up, results pretty good.

Now my question, I intend to get one more white brolly, one more stand. So then I intend to put the two stands at approx 45 degrees either site of my subjects, a family of two adults, 2 children on a settee. Each stand will have one brolly and one of the flashes.

Will this give a better result than the two guns shooting through one brolly??

yep.

one common mistake people make is to think that one flash needs to be set lower than the other to give a light ratio...(ie 2:1).
that is true for an individual portrait, but with groups using the 45deg setup you describe, the flashes should be putting out equal power.
carefull aiming of lights will get it right. (see my earlier post.).

Thanks Don appreciate your wisdom and fast reply.

I have found this resource invaluable with regards to lighting

http://www.photoflexlightingschool.com/Lighting_Lessons/index.html

Think I'll order a shoot through to compliment the brolly-box type though because I'm finding I get the reflection of the light stand and the back of the gun in the picture. You can see that here in the lower right corner.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/baldmonk/2128131673/

light tent.
somewhere in the past I posted a how-to on making a $10.00 light tent with a collapsable laundry hamper. that's solve your problem quite nicely.