Andrea Belluso Shows Us Why Every Photographer Should Bring Their Umbrella Indoors

From the Profoto Blog:

A couple of months ago, I [Andrea Belluso] shared with you a shoot I did for Pall Mall Barbers, one of the oldest and most respected barbershops in London. Today’s shoot was done for the same client. But this time they wanted the model portrayed in more relaxed kind of environment.

After giving it some thought, I decided to keep things simple. We brought the team and our model Knut to Story Restaurant just across the street from the Profoto office in Stockholm to shoot Knut relaxing in their lounge with a cup of tea in his hand.

The same thinking went into our choice of equipment – keeping it simple. So, we brought a single B1 off-camera flash, an Umbrella Deep Silver L and an Umbrella Deep White XL.

The B1 was chosen because I knew we would be shooting with a limited amount of time and space. Because in my experience, the B1 tends to make those kinds of shoots a lot easier.

The Umbrella Deep Silver L was brought to be our main light. I wanted a crispy light, rich in contrast, but with a focused and quite small light spread, and the Umbrella Deep Silver L is great for that. As most umbrellas, it’s also easy to carry with you and easy to use in a narrow space such as this.

The Umbrella Deep White XL was brought to light up the brick wall and a small part of the reception behind our model. This light needed to be a bit wider than out main light. I also wanted a bit less contrast and a slightly softer light. So, the Umbrella Deep White XL felt as an obvious choice.

All in all, it was a quite simple yet practical and portable set up that gave me exactly the result I was after in almost no time.

B&H carries Profoto umbrellas.