I got myself a big umbrella reflector on ebay – it’s quite cheap and even though it claims to be a parabolic umbrella it certainly isn’t as parabolic as the really expensive stuff you can get from broncolor, briese or others. Parabolic umbrellas are, if used correctly, used to throw a big beam of hard light. To achieve this effect, you need to have the right light source and the right kind of umbrella and so on. I actually never intended to use the umbrella like this, I just wanted a big light source to fill in shadows by using the umbrella either on-axis or as fill from the side. So today, I took the baby (162cm wide) for a little test drive. I was told that I could never fill this thing with a normal speedlight, and there is some truth in that. With the diffuser cap on, though, and aimed right at the dead center, I could see that I used pretty much the whole umbrella (check the reflections in the eyes if you’re not sure). The umbrella was right behind me, aimed at my subject at eye level (thus, the on-axis fill that you can even use to achieve a ring-light-ish effect). Beauty dish from the right, reflector from the left, gridded spot on the background. I tested several levels and found that I only needed very little power (1/64th) on the umbrella to fill in some of the shadows that the key light made. Looking forward to more adventures with this big thing – never gonna use it outdoors without an assistant, though. This thing is a sail.

Can be used as a background, too!