As always, I can only speak from my own very limited experience. I
have used flashes and umbrellas and bounced them and shot through
them. I still do but I find I really need to keep them close to the
subject. I haven't tested and recorded numbers. I may be entirely
wrong in my sense of things. I don't have any real small softboxes so
it also may simply be that my umbrella's are smaller and therefore
work better with my flashes than my single large softbox but most
softboxes - I think - have a diffusion panel inside and when you
shoot into that to ensure a wide even coverage from the box you end
up with less light then when you bounce from a sliver umbrella. When
I resort to my flashes with umbrella I am trying to go light so I may
also be trying to use my STE2 and then I may well be forced to shoot
through the umbrella if the STE2 can't "see" a bounced flash, which
is common. In three hours I have a home family portrait commissioned.
I could take my flashes I guess but when people pay good money for
portraits to be done I try to use the best gear for the job. When I
have to do multiple location shots I am more likely to use my flashes
just because they are so much faster to setup. They are very useable
but in my case I only have two of them whereas I have four strobes. I
know of one photographer who uses something like 5 sets of flashes
for wedding banquets and such to great effect. I agree that a white
shoot-through umbrella -might- be less efficient than a softbox, but
if the softbox has a diffusion panel it might not be the case.
Somebody with a similar sized softbox and umbrella could check that
out. All my stuff is packed up this AM. I'm outa here in a short
while and at THIS moment...it's time to make some coffee, get dressed
and load up the car. 4 strobes, two barndoors, ND filters, two
backdrops, six stands and too many cords.
Bud,
Thanks for your interesting answer. See my comments following yours:
> By itself, a
single flash doesn't have enough power to be used effectively with a
softbox which diminishes light quite a bit more than an umbrella.
Umbrella's are more commonly used because they lose less light.
How does an umbrella looses less power than a softbox?
How do you use the umbrella? A silver reflecting (inversed) or a while
translucid facing the subject?
I've used a white translucid umbrella and I might expect that a softbox
would make more efficient use of the flash power.
The translucid umbrella bounces a lot of light backwards, making you loose
control of it and effectively reducing the usable light reaching your
subject.
I would expect that a softbox would bounce all that light back at the
subject, as the flash in enclosed in reflective walls.
--
Bud Kuenzli
In cyberspace when you get where you're going you still don't know
where you are.
*
****
*******
***********************************************************
* For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see:
* http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm
***********************************************************
