Strobist: specialized umbrella

[Uncle Frank]

A Brolly Box is a specialized umbrella, specifically designed to be used in the shoot-through mode. I won an ebay auction for a Dynaphos 40" Brolly and gave it a try today.

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Due to the design, a Brolly is more efficient than shooting through a white umbrella, and it avoids light splashing out of the back. I tried it out in my living room "studio", and took a couple of snaps of my old pal, Charlie, who was passing through town.

I used the Brolly at frame right for the main, and sunlight from a window at frame left for the fill.

Here's Charlie.

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Next, a shot of the western lawman...

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... and finally, a modern version of Charlie.

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I think the Brolly gives a nice, soft, wrap-around kind of light... but I'm on my honeymoon with it.

 

[jfrancis]

I have a Photex Softlighter which works very nicely with the SB800s.

Oh - finger OFF the trigger until ready to fire . . . . :smile:

 

[greyflash]

Good job Frank, especially the first one. You are on your way with this new toy.

 

[Uncle Frank]

John, he was very careful to remove the clip and make sure the chamber was empty. The Softliter II was on my list, but the Brolly is a good alternative.

Gordon, thanks! The first one is my favorite, too.

 

[rdelbar]

You will like this brolly a lot, UF! I have a similar one, and I found it to deliver a good compromise between light quality and efficiency.

Here's two snaps of my daughter, each taken with one SB-800 + brolly left as main, another SB-800 into a white/black umbrella right as fill, and an old manual Metz with a slave photocell to illuminate the backdrop:

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The only drawback is that the mounting as shown your picture does not let you tilt the brolly down a lot. however, somewhere on this forum I picked up the idea to use a camera bracket of some kind between the swivel umbrella holder and the flash mount shoe, to move the flash - and thus the back of the brolly - farther out from the light stand.

René

 

[Uncle Frank]

I love the pictures of your daughter, René, particularly the first one because it shows off her sparkling personality. Such amazing eyes! Thanks for the examples, and for the ideas about the Brolly mount.

 

[cwilt]

Interesting...

I was curious about the tilt as well. This setup would make it difficult to do butterfly lighting. One of my favorite setups for female subjects.

 

[greyflash]

Your daughter is lovely Rene'

 

[bioalkemist]

Frank - I like the shots, except for the one with the gun. I think it would have worked better if he'd been looking inthe direction he was aiming the gun. Or, you could have him point the gun at you and do it that way. A cool shot would probably be to focus on the barrel of the gun with that 85 of yours at a large aperture and get his body out of focus, while the gun is pointed at you.

 

[Ray C.]

Seek and ye shall find...:wink:

Here ya go guys:

https://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=114380&page=10

Cheers.