Umberlla Flash Not Centered questions

[jay_huse]

<p>I have an off centered flash problem. <br /><br /></p>

<p >Well, i have a shoot through umbrella and mounted it with a portable 285hv flash.</p>

<p >The hole that the umbrella rod goes through is not slanted but is parallel to the floor. Now I am not sure but it appears that the flash is off centered from the umbrella giving an uneven lighting of the umbrella. What I mean is when I see the catch light in the eyes of portraits I see the top portion of the umbrella is really bright while the lower parts of the umbrella is very much less intense.</p>

<p >So basically I have my flash head 90 degrees to the umbrella but it just not seem like it is centered enough.<br>

<br />Am I missing something ? <br /></p>

[mark_sirota1]

<p>The umbrella hole in most umbrella swivels is tilted to compensate for this -- if you insert your umbrella from the other side, does it get better? If not, perhaps you need a different swivel.</p>

[jay_huse]

<p>Yea I agree most holes have a slant tilt to them. This does not it it straight through which sucks. I did not see thins when I bought it a while back. <br>

I assume they make swivel heads for the flashes to point downward a bit ?</p>

[d_g5]

<p>You wont be able to get a perfectly centerd light unless you just tape your flash laying flat across your umbrella bracket. You however have two more practicle choices. Choice A) Back the umbrella a bit away from the flash and change the lens zoom to better fill the umbrella. Choice B) Put a Stofen Omnibounce on your flash to more evenly distribute the light. I wouldnt use choice B because though the omni bounce will far more evenly distribute the light the omnibounce will reduce the light output therefore lowering your output.</p>

[cabbiinc]

<p>Many times the hardware on the umbrella mount is put on backwards (at least the cheap models that I buy). The part that screws onto the lightstand should be on the other end so that the umbrella stays even with the flash, not the ground.</p>

<p>Your unit might be different, but just look at it like the flash goes on the other end. If that would make the umbrella move with the flash then that's the way it should go.</p>

[gertle]

<p>Hi Jay, For proper umbrella bracket mounting check out this video at the <a href="http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html">strobist</a> site. There's other good stuff there as well.</p>

[picturesque]

<p>You can do as d g says re putting the flash flat against the umbrella rod by getting a tilt adapter to go between the flash and cold shoe. You will have to really widen your zoom head angle though, because you don't have enough umbrella rod to back it off from the flash, and a 285 doesn't have the extreme wide angle setting.</p>