3ft. vs 7ft. Photo Umbrella. Light modifiers compared

Lighting setup using the 7ft. umbrella with diffuser and the black reflector.

I love soft and diffused light, so my go-to is the 7 ft. umbrella with a diffuser. However, I recently got the 3 ft. umbrella to compare with the 7 ft. and tried both sizes in a recent self-portrait.

I will first show you the picture using the 3 ft. umbrella. The setup was really simple. The light was about 90 degrees, and I placed a black reflector about one foot away from my back.

First picture.

Set up: 3 ft. umbrella about 90 degrees from the subject and black reflector about a foot away from the back.

I liked the picture, but the contrast between the highlights and shadows is too much for my taste and style.

This second picture was created using the 7 ft. umbrella. The light was in the same position (about 90 degrees from the subject), but I placed the black reflector about 5 feet away from my back.

Second picture.

Set up: 7 ft. umbrella about 90 degrees from the subject and black reflector about a 5ft. away from the back.

There is a huge difference in how light shapes the entire picture. Even the backdrop looks different. The actual color of the backdrop is gray (Thunder gray from Savage Universal), and as you can see, the color changes a lot when using the 3 ft. umbrella compared to the 7 ft. umbrella.

I'm keeping the one taken with the 7ft. umbrella. It's more my style and what I love to portray, but comparing both light modifiers was a fun and helpful experience.

By the way, both images were taken with a Mamiya 645 using Kodak tri-x 400.

Let me know your thoughts.