Break Out the Brollies

When it comes to portrait photography, the classic umbrella is my stock in trade. Nothing beats it for portability and versatility.

It takes less than a minute to set up a lightstand and umbrella, and everything collapses to fit in a long narrow bag. Most bags will accommodate 2-3 umbrellas and stands, more than enough to capture great portraits.

Here’s the way it works; you unfold and extend the stand, attach an “umbrella bracket” to the 5/8" stud at the top, open the umbrella and slide it through the hole in the bracket, and attach a speedlight to the bracket with a hot shoe adapter. You not only have complete control over the height and angle of the light source, but access to the Speedlight’s controls as well. If you flip the whole thing around and use the umbrella “shoot through” style, you can simulate the effect of a light box, with somewhat less efficiency.

This of course is the Strobist technique. “Strobists” use small, lightweight, battery-powered speedlights in place of larger, AC-powered studio strobes. If you prefer the latter, simply use a moonlight in place of the umbrella bracket and speed light.

Most speedlights these days have zoom capability to match their coverage to the lens in use. When used with an umbrella, this works to your advantage in adjusting the "shape" of the reflected or diffused light. They also feature a fully manual mode with the ability to adjust output power from full to s little as 1/128. For those who are counting, that’s a seven stop range

You can trigger the speedlight in one of four ways; through a hard-wired PC sync cord, an optical slave, a radio slave, or through the camera’s wireless optical trigger system if it has one. Many older speedlights have built-in optical slaves.

Radio slaves are becoming more and more popular for their flexibility and reliability. They have a longer range than optical systems, which use the on-camera flash to trigger the remote flashes via an optical sensor. And, they don’t require “line of sight” placement to work.

Proprietary remote optical systems like the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) send out a coded flash pulse just before the actual flash to tell the speed light exactly what to do based on the TTL meter reading of the camera. In some cases these pre-flashes may interfere with standard optical slaves, but with some skill and practice, you can get them working together. some optical slaves, including those on mini lights, can be programmed to ignore the preflash.

One of the great things about strobism is that you can use practically any brand of flash with an optical slave or radio trigger in manual mode, so one of the most important features to consider is whether or not the flash has adjustable power. This means that old working flashes can be given a new lease on life.

I use Westcott umbrellas with Manfrotto brackets. The umbrellas feature a black cover, which when removed allows you to use them “shoot-thru” style as diffusers. The Manfrotto brackets are solid, powder-coated aluminum, and do not flex under even the heaviest use.

Impact is my choice for light stands. They have an extensive range of sizes and duty ratings and are "air cushioned" which means that if not securely tightened they lower gracefully instead of smashing your equipment to the floor.

At the top of the Manfrotto umbrella bracket is a 5/8 receptor, and an included brass stud with a 1/4-20 thread which screws into the bottom of a radio slave, optical slave or hot shoe adapter. For the latter, Vello is my choice; they offer a two-piece extruded aluminum cold shoe which clamps securely onto the flash’s shoe regardless of brand, and does not flex or interfere with the electrical contacts in any way. Some umbrella brackets include these adapters, but I prefer the durability of the Manfrotto.

For small to medium groups or spaces, the Nikon CLS works great, even when used with a non-CLS compatible, optical slave-triggered fill flash.

For larger architectural-interior assignments where TTL is not absolutely necessary, I use economical Yongnuo transceivers with manual mode.

When TTL is required to accommodate a moveable subject, I break out the Pocket Wizards, which have incredible range and versatility that comes at a premium price.

My speedlights are the flagship Nikon SB-900, the compact SB-28DX. If I need to use an optical slave, I turn to an old favorite, a Vivitar SL-2, which hasn’t let me down in over 15 years.