Umbrellas white vs silver, measured

At a group portrait shoot today, since we had a few different umbrellas, we decided to do a test to see just how much reflective light difference there was between the silver and white.

 

Testing setup was

Light source was a Speedotron Brownline strobe, so no issues with flakey batteries.

Measured using a Minolta Autometer IV

ISO level set to 100

 

Umbrellas:

Wescott convertable, white

Wescott double fold, silver

Wescott shoot thru white. (shot as a normal reflected umbrella)

 

Final results were THE SAME.

The displayed aperture was 5.2 to 5.8. So close to 5.6 that for all practical purposes there wasn't a difference in the amount of light reflected between any of the 3 umbrellas. This was very surprising as we expected to see more light reflected by the silver umbrella.

 

What would have been interesting to have is an umbrella with a highly reflective silver surface. The Wescott silver that we had was a silvery cloth-like material vs something very reflective like mylar.

I know it's a lot more subjective of a thing, and would require posting example images... but surely the different materials created an obviously different quality of light, harshness-wise?

that little more than a half stop difference can go a looooong way. besides, it's the quality of light that is the difference between the two that makes it relevant & not so much the quantity.

We did not do a shot comparison to see the quality of light difference.

 

What drove this comparison test was what many including me had been saying, to use a silver umbrella with a shoe flash to make better use of the limited light output of a shoe flash (as compared to a studio flash). And it was just this logic that I used to buy a silver Wescott double fold umbrella for traveling. So this was an efficiency test, not concerned with light quality.

 

Before the test we were guessing that the silver would reflect more light by 1 stop or so.

 

What it appears is the silver colored fabric (not mylar) is about as reflective as white. So based on this crude test, you should pick based on light quality, as the efficiency is about the same.

 

NOTE: The test was not scientifically rigid, as we used a bipod (me) to hold the flash meter, so there was inherent position variability in that. I figure the error in holding the meter +/- 4 inches from the reference point on the floor, which could affect the metered reading. In hindsight, we should have put the flash meter on a stand so it would not move from shot to shot.

 

Oh dang, I just realized that the list of umbrellas did not come out as I typed it. Lets try again

Umbrellas: 1) Wescott convertible, white with black cover left on; 2) Wescott double fold, silver; 3) Wescott shoot thru white. (shot as a normal reflected umbrella)

I tried the same thing with a Wescott Convertible and a no name silver umbrella. I found white to reflect a little more light than silver. Not much though, they were within a 1/2 stop.

 

I keep hearing that silver should be more harsh, or have more specular highlights, etc., but I could not detect any difference from shooting with them. Anyone have evidence to the contrary?

I use silver (2 gradations of silver surface) and white umbrellas. The lighting is so different. I get different shadows shape, different look etc. More harsh the umbrella more visible the hot spot effect is.

Jim

 

I think it depends on the silver material used. The silver colored fabric in the Wescott does not reflect as much as a metalic or mylar-like material which would be more harsh.

 

Now I have to play with it and see what the lighting difference is between white and the 'soft silver' fabric.

I use a Larson sliver umberlla for fill. My tests, also with a brownline pack and an M11 head, show that it eats only on stop vs direct flash.

Hi i only have silver, i have 3 lastolite which are shinny silver and a unbranded ebay job which has more of a mat dull finish, i have not dun proper tests but i feal the lastolate has at lest half to one stop more light so maybe the finish be it silver or white makes more difference than the colour remeber if its 1 stop more that is double the light out put what do you think? Dave

Somewhat surprising, I admit. Another interesting variation would have been the shoot through umbrella as shoot through.

Ilkka

Just for fun we did do the shoot thru as a shoot thru but I don't think the result is valid. The light source would be the surface of the umbrella, and we did not change the location of the light stand when we revolved the light from normal umbrella position to shoot thru position, therefore the umbrella surface was closer to the meter. The location of the flash head however was constant, because we just rotated the flash head in the light stand.

 

Anyway, the approximate results, were in the normal mode about 5.6, in the shoot thru mode about 8. I did not write down the numbers so the shoot thru value is just what I can remember.

 

 

Dave, What you said seems to be one of the important variables. The finish of the surface. My Wescott silver was not a smooth metalic-like silver like mylar, it was a silver colored fabric. I would love to get a reflective silver umbrella and redo the test in a more structured way.