Umbrellas for photography are the lightest and portable tool to soften and spread the light.

Umbrellas are available on different sizes, materials and shapes.

The umbrella’s size is usually measured on the arc so this value is often bigger than the diameter.

The material can be reflective (white or silver) or translucent, on that case the light is both reflected and transmitted.

Silver umbrellas gives a more harsh light with brilliant highlights and a faster light falldown than the wite ones.

In some cases you can find umbrellas with a removable cover that let you quickly change from a white reflective umbrella to a translucent umbrella.

Deep umbrellas are a very special tool that let you limit the light spread. They act in a quite different way from the shallow umbrellas that are able to diffuse and distribute the light on a quite wide area.

In some cases the reflective deep umbrellas can be equipped with a removable diffuser so they can act in a similar way of an indirect softbox