Umbrellas: shoot through or reflective

This should be a reasonably easy question.

 

What are the differences between using a white shoot through umbrella, and using a reflecting (bounce) umbrella?

 

What situations would I use one or the other?

 

Mike

Shoot through is much more difusion, therefore softer and better for portraits. Reflective is very good for fill. I don't

like them for main lights for portraits for two reasons. One is that they are harsher, even the soft white ones; and

secondly, if used as the main light, there is a large amount of spill off to the sides that can contaminate the

background. If you use a shoot through, this is still somewhat true, but much, much less.

 

If you can go beyond umbrellas, a starfish (Larson), or Octabox or soft box offer much more control with beautiful

diffusion.

I was just browsing Strobist recently. When I first read the site, he was an avid user of reflecting umbrellas. Now he's been converted to shoot through for most situations. One of his reasons was that the shoot through would work better in situation where it had to be close because the distance the light traveled was less. The reflector would have to be closer and could end up in the shot.

 

An advantage of a reflective is that the ribs are less likely to cast shadows. I've seen an Eclipse shoot through umbrella that covers the ribs on the inside. I haven't used one so I don't know how effective it would be.

 

You can also get gold reflective umbrellas. They would give you a warmer light. I'm real new at this so I'm only repeating what I've read.

Short answer, shoot through is softer light but gobbles up more power. Bounce provides more power, and silver bounce more power still and harsher.