Six years ago I started making pictures, and I dove right in planning to make a portrait business. The best thing I did was attend David Ziser‘s workshop where he taught me that shadow and light are the most important technical things to learn in photography. He showed image after image of stunning portraits, and they were almost all lit with the same modifier, and I bought one from him that night. Six years later, that Zumbrella is still my most profitable tool, and while it’s seen better days physically, it’s still the fastest and easiest way I have to make great light for portraits.
David Ziser’s Zumbrella is different from any other white shoot through umbrella you can buy in this size. More light goes through it! Other umbrellas have a reflective coating, which is great if you want to reflect light out of the umbrella, not so great if you’re trying to shoot light through it. And shooting through it will give you the soft beautiful light that looks good on everybody.
The Zumbrella is $40. Other shoot through umbrella’s can be found much cheaper. For the pictures in this post I actually used an umbrella from Phottix, which is less expensive, but also less efficient. The difference is that when brightness is important, the Zumbrella lets more of your flash’s power through to light your subjects, which equates to longer battery life, or lower ISO’s, or bigger groups of people lit. I’ve lit as many as twelve people in a family with a single Zumbrella and had great results.
Plus, a double folding umbrella like this literally fits in the pocket of my overcoat. A speedlight drops in another pocket, and a passerby holding these together is a perfect setup for making an impromptu portrait on the sidewalk.
So, spend forty bucks and get a Zumbrella. If you really, truly only have twenty, get a normal white shoot through umbrella (but it’s really money well spent for the Zumbrella).
I am curious as to why there is so much depth of field for an image shot at f1.2? Is this camera a micro 4/3?
Thank you,
Tim Vrieling
Tim, It is a Micro four thirds camera, and it’s a 42.5mm lens, so it’s not very long. Also, click on the images to view them larger and you’ll see that the gal on the left has both eyes in focus (they are both in the same plane) but the gal on the right’s left eye is out of focus, and their ears are out of focus. So the DOF is really quite narrow, but this lens in particular is really good at giving nice clarity even though stuff is out of focus. I like that it keeps the focus… Read more »
Levi;
Thanks. How do you shoot through the umbrella then get those excellent catch lights in the eyes? When I have shot with umbrellas I get spider web look in the catch lights from the umbrella’s shape.
Mia, that’s a great question. First to be clear, I’m pointing the convex side of the umbrella at my subjects; if you use the concave side, you’ll see the spars more easily. Second, I often have the octagonal shape of the umbrella apparent in their eyes, and that’s ok. In this case, I think the umbrella was about four feet from my subjects, and I’m using an 85mm Full Frame equivalent lens, so I’m not super close to their faces, which all leads to the catchlights being mostly white without detail. If you’ve got the detail of the ribs/spars in… Read more »
Just curious, why would you do a promo for the Zumbrella yet show photos that you took with a different product?
Levi is showing how umbrellas work. We often try to show different products and price points in articles.
Mark, That’s a reasonable question. I made these pictures, and realized I could share about umbrellas, too. I’ve honestly made tens of thousands of dollars with the Zumbrella, but, as I say, it’s on it’s last legs. I had this Phottix umbrella handy, so I gave it a shot. It does well, but it’s not as efficient as the Zumbrella. The quality of light between the two is similar, so I felt it was okay to use these pictures for interesting illustrations.
I am curious as to why there is so much depth of field for an image shot at f1.2? Is this camera a micro 4/3?
Thank you,
Tim Vrieling
Tim, It is a Micro four thirds camera, and it’s a 42.5mm lens, so it’s not very long. Also, click on the images to view them larger and you’ll see that the gal on the left has both eyes in focus (they are both in the same plane) but the gal on the right’s left eye is out of focus, and their ears are out of focus. So the DOF is really quite narrow, but this lens in particular is really good at giving nice clarity even though stuff is out of focus. I like that it keeps the focus… Read more »
Just curious, why would you do a promo for the Zumbrella yet show photos that you took with a different product?
Mark, That’s a reasonable question. I made these pictures, and realized I could share about umbrellas, too. I’ve honestly made tens of thousands of dollars with the Zumbrella, but, as I say, it’s on it’s last legs. I had this Phottix umbrella handy, so I gave it a shot. It does well, but it’s not as efficient as the Zumbrella. The quality of light between the two is similar, so I felt it was okay to use these pictures for interesting illustrations.
Levi is showing how umbrellas work. We often try to show different products and price points in articles.
Levi;
Thanks. How do you shoot through the umbrella then get those excellent catch lights in the eyes? When I have shot with umbrellas I get spider web look in the catch lights from the umbrella’s shape.
Mia, that’s a great question. First to be clear, I’m pointing the convex side of the umbrella at my subjects; if you use the concave side, you’ll see the spars more easily. Second, I often have the octagonal shape of the umbrella apparent in their eyes, and that’s ok. In this case, I think the umbrella was about four feet from my subjects, and I’m using an 85mm Full Frame equivalent lens, so I’m not super close to their faces, which all leads to the catchlights being mostly white without detail. If you’ve got the detail of the ribs/spars in… Read more »