I have had a hankering lately to get another flash mod. A medium big (130-165cm), white with black back is the likely candidate, being the only type and size I lack, but before I do, I decided to do a better set of tests of the many I have. Part of the test result is to find out is backed brollies retain/reflect more light than translucent ones. Other reviewers have said they don’t and logically, why would they, but my mods in my situations may vary.
The test was not overly scientific, more practical field test, but it was consistent. the details are noted on an ever wetter chalk board, but the core settings stayed the same;
The flash had fresh batts and tons of time between shots. The zoom was set to 50mm (ff) and the drop down diffuser plate used (not the dome). I have tested this before and found they have a similar effect.
The camera was set to manual and RAW, with no processing applied after the base C1 import.
Exposure was not adjusted, as part of the test is to determine modifier efficiency compared to the best known unit base line (42” reflected Godox).
Light was controlled for the most part, with the exception of a little side light from a small window, but (1) they all got the same treatment and (2) the exposure before flash was near black.
Distance from flash head to “Joe Black” when testing reflector style mods was 1.2m and 1.5m for shoot through mods to allow for their configuration, which is of course not ideal for some mods, but was again, consistent. Joe is matt finish, so he has similar reflectance as skin.
The angle is not quite 45/45, ore 35/35, but again consistent.
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First up, I did the reflector style mods.
My base settings were based on the 42” Godox transluscent white brolly reversed, which I have had so much success with. I went with what looked right to my eye with the EM10 I usually use for this kind of work.
My first surprise is how much difference moving the light up and down the stem makes, well pushing down the stem anyway. It seems to make more difference than brolley size. Moving it down to full stem length really reduces contrast, which may also be affected by the flash head settings. Moving it forward is more subtle, so rarely worth worrying about.
I have not used the little 32” reflective Octa soft box yet, but I must admit, I like it as a slightly brighter option. I may get a grid for this later, just to add some relevance to it.
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Next up, the cheap 33” silver brollies. I have already had some luck with these, using them for some drama student portraits. I also have some gold ones, but won’t bother the umpire with those.
Again, the stem length is very important, more so than any other mod. At half stem, it runs about a stop hotter than the white and is far more contrasty, but pushing back to full stem, it loses about a half stop and takes on similar softness to the 33” white. So these seem to be affected in contrast similarly to the whites, but even more in exposure. These varied so much I checked and repeated.
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Another mod I have had some success with is the 43” umbrella soft box.
Another surprise. The 43” soft box, with black backing and diffuser still seems to run hotter than the shoot through 33” brolly. Considering it avoids spill and aids feathering, this is a bit of a winner.
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The next mod is the 48“ octagon reflector soft box (x2). These have a few configurations, open (silver), single baffle and double baffle (putting both baffles from the two onto one). I have 2 more of these coming, with grids.
Open, it is similar to the 33” silver, but it’s even hotter. These would be good for covering large areas, except shadows would have to be factored in. The second baffle does make a difference, but to be honest, I would just go with the 42” reversed for less trouble unless there is a power or coverage benefit.
Compared to the baseline 42” reflected, the double diffused 4’ is warmer (the warmest so far) and a little hotter in the highlights, but also a little more open thanks to their added size and diffusion. I found these mods looked poor with the Neewer 60w point light pointed into them, but need to test that. They had obvious hot spots and too much translucence, hence the double baffle test.
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Now for the big guns. My two 7’ brollies were bought for maximum coverage (yet to be tested) and softness, which has been shown to be the case. I used the transluscent to shoot a group of 12 people with one light source, which it did evenly and in a very “Annie Leibowitz” way.
Very soft, even dull looking. The colour of the brolly is off-white with a pearlescent sheen and this shows in the warm, muted result. Pushing it up the stem opens and brightens it a little, leaving it back seems to be even flatter. Dropping it back fully is not an option due to weight and size. Looks like I can use it in the form you would want, up full stem for stability and a good balance of brilliance and softness.
I think in this situation, the 7’ reflected at half stem is the softest overall, removing the slight brilliance from the highlights the 42’ has.
Ok, so the silver has a lot more grunt, maybe 2 stops at half stem (1/32 power at ISO 400, f2.8 in this situation*), a full stop at no stem length. This is the Big hitter for groups, which is exactly why I bought it, so good thing It is as hoped. It is contrasty and brilliant, but also quite open due to its size.
I can fill this with two or more full strength flash units for some real throw and something I did not try, is a semi collapsed “deep” shape, which may concentrate it even more. This one also has less spill than the white, being black backed, so feathering may be an option also.
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Now time to look at the shoot through configuration of the brollies and some Bowens mount soft boxes.
First the Brollies.
Compared to all of the S/T options, the reflected 42” base line is softer and darker, but surprisingly the 42” looks warmer than the 7’ this way around, the opposite is true when reversed. I have never liked shoot through as much as reflected as I feel the S/T light creates more hot spots, which is borne out here as well as about half a stop more light. The other effect of shoot through, is these mods start to look like the bulk of my other mods, either negating them, or just confusing matters.
As for the brollies themselves, I see only subtle differences, especially between the two smaller sizes.
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Finally the two double diffusion soft boxes, the Art DNA 26” with Bowens mount that I will use for the Neewer point light and the annoyingly bulky, square edged 24” which has a egg crate grid option (not tested). This last one is well liked, but only folds down into a 24” triangle, which is just a pain. It looks to produce nearly the same results as the cheapo white 33” shoot throughs.
The Art DNA looks to be a good neutral option for stills and video, striking the perfect middle ground between brilliance and open softness.
I am not convinced the double diffusion has much benefit except to make smaller units look a little bigger than they are.
So, what was learned;
Any of my mods can do most jobs with a little brain power applied.
Bigger mods do make a difference, but it is a diminishing return. A well used 33” with some post can match a poorly used 7’ brolly.
I would always prefer a smaller reversed brolly to a larger shoot through given the choice.
My cheap as chips 33” white shoot through brollies are the best bang for the buck by far. They are versatile, neutral, efficient and so very replaceable (I think I got them in one of those crazy 2 stand, 2 brolly, 2 clamp sets for about $40 and picked up a pair of silver/gold ones for $10). The 42” brollies have been my go-to, but to be honest, the 33’s would likely have managed all the same jobs.
A double baffle soft box is similar to a shoot through, but the light is less “hot” on the surface and more neutral, with mine anyway. These are often the best/only option for Bowens mount lights, but if a brolly can be used, the results are often the same.
The bulk seem to be on the warm side, with only the Art DNA, silver brollies/open soft boxes and cheap white brollies bucking the curve. I don’t mind warmth for people, especially general social work, but will keep this in mind for other subjects.
Getting another brolly would not be wise without confirming I would get something different.
There is no base setting based on distance, camera and flash settings that suits all or even most of these modifiers at better than +/- a stop, but a ballpark is possible.
My base line 42” reversed are a good all purpose option, but guess what? They are some of the least efficient units, so almost anything has more grunt. With the M43 depth of field advantage, where my f2.8 is actually full frame f5.6, I will only assume at this stage that I have enough power between 5 (+) units and these mods to light up a group of 40-50 people if needed! Not bad for about $1000 all up including the flash units.
What I don’t know;
I need to find the sweet spot and best application for each mod. The all exist for a reason, so comparing them to my favourite 42” reversed, seems to be off for some, irrelevant even.
Widths and shapes of the mods, that is which will cover large groups, which are too uncontrolled for intimate shoots without thought, which have slow roll off and when etc.
How much power do I have ultimately.
Things not tested that may effect the end result;
Different distances and angles,
Semi-closing the brollies,
Changing the flash head configuration (wide without diffuser, wide with, double diffused etc.),
Using more than one flash in relevant mods,
Using more than light and mod.
Handy to get them out and use them anyway. It’ amazing the little things you find out like unforseen hassles setting up, limits in space and the feeling of crowding with some.
*so loading it up with three stobes without diffusers at 1:1, f1.8, ISO 800 at 30m+ is likely.