Collapsed Umbrella
On a recent workshop, Peter was using an umbrella for a lighting set up and one of the participants asked Peter if he has ever used it collapsed, which he had not, so he decided to give it a go and was really happy with the results. This tutorial is Peter’s first proper shoot using the collapsed umbrella and shows you the difference in it compared to when it is fully open.
10 comments on “Collapsed Umbrella”
Hi Peter, a really practice-orientated video with a simple modifier that is easy to transport, easy to handle and offers a multitude of possibilities. You show exactly how precisely you can approach the optimum in one way or another – more of these umbrella videos please!
It’s a little comforting knowing that a photographer as skilled as you, with a model as skilled as Ana still get blinkies. Lol.
I think it’s near impossible to have a shoot without at least one blinkie shot, some models are worse than others
This was the inspire I was waiting for after you mentioned this technique in the podcast. It does produce an interesting quality of light. Any idea if this technique has another name besides Collapsed Umbrella? I’m curious if anyone recorded anything about this technique back when it was popular; there is definitley nothing about it on the Internet until this quick tutorial. Either way, what fun to have a new lighting technique to learn and experiment with.
no I can’t find anything like collapsed umbrella
Have a look at the numerous older videos by ZACK ARIAS (https://www.youtube.com/@ZackAriasATL) or at CREATIVE LIVE (www.creativelive.com) in some of his tutorials. He practised this “technique” very often and often referred to the folded umbrella as a “softbox for the poor man” …
I couldn’t find anything on his Youtube channel and I have never been a member of Creative Live
It is very briefly mentioned in Zack’s studio lightning course, Helmut was right. However, it is mentioned for less than a minute in the section on modifiers (1m in 50m; maybe he mentions it in more detail in another video). Besides stating that the umbrella needs to be closed down about halfway, there isn’t really any discussion about why one would do this (short of the poor man’s sotbox comment) and we didn’t get a good look at what the lighting produced.
I will See if I can find something in my archive and send you a link then, or via DropBox the .mp4 files. Right. Will take some days.
Thanks Helmut. I’ll take a look around to see if I can find that.