pros and cons shoot through, versus reflective umbrella

<p>under what circumstances would it be beneficial to use an umbrella as a shoot through versus a reflective type set up?</p>

<p>Thank you in advance for all answers<br>

Kevin</p>

<p>1. When you need to or want to put the umbrella very close to the subject (reflective position means the handle is in the way).</p>

<p>2. When you want the light to spread widely (convex shape of the umbrella in shoot through position).</p>

<p>don't forget though, that the shoot-through blows uncontrolled light all over the place.....which is not usually what you may want.....Robert</p>

<p>Any shoot-through style umbrella loses half of your light regardless of whether it's used in shoot-through mode or reflective mode, even if you have a black cover for it in the latter situation.</p>

<p>A reflective-only umbrella, i.e. a metallic reflector, is better suited to fine control of the light.</p>

<p>- Leigh</p>

<p>Reflectives are a bit more specular as well.</p>

<p>If you use wireless flash system that requires direct line of sight between commander flash and remote flashes, it is usually easier to shot through umbrella, so the remote flashes would not hide inside ubmrellas, and will be directly visible from the commander on the camera. <br>

This is more important if shooting outside and in bright day light, where commanding IR/light signals cannot reflect back or bounce to the camera with commander flash on it. For studio it does not make much difference as far as commanding is concerned, since the reflected commanding light protocol usually has sufficient level to find flashes inside an umbrella. </p>