One Light (Umbrella XL) Portrait

I have just recently starting using umbrellas in my lighting setups, but that was not the case before Profoto released their XL line. First I bought two Umbrella XL Silver (together with front diffusers). They have proven to be very useful for easy on-location lighting of both individual portraits as well as smaller group shots.

This spring, I added an Umbrella XL Translucent to my equipment bag, mostly to use as a very soft and big fill light that didn’t take too much space in my equipment bag. Not needning to pack so many softboxes and especially speedrings makes a lot of difference when shooting on location. I carry everything myself.

This umbrella is really big, and a lot softer as well as very non-directional compared to the silver version. Even with the front diffuser on (the silver, that is).

Turning off the other lights

Using it is very easy, in a moment you get a huge orb of light that can be used in many ways. For this one light portrait, I used it with a Profoto D1 on a boom stand in the studio.

We had started with another setup (see Studio Portrait in fake Sunset) and this was just a basic version of that one, sometimes it is fun to reduce the original setup to its most basic form by turning off all the lights except the main light.

For most one light portraits I do, I tend to use more interesting light modifiers as my main (and only) light. More often a beauty dish or Magnum reflector, than a big soft light (maybe a softbox Octa sometimes).

But testing this big and soft light in the studio makes me believe that it would work very well on-location mixed with natural light. As I said about the silver version holds true to this as well, it is very lightweight and easy to pack, and that is really something that I like.

The problem might be that it is so big, shooting standing portraits in small rooms with low ceiling might not be that easy (or just produce boring flat light). It needs almost one meter above the flash head to fit in.

Or you can use it as fill of course.