How to Build a Photo Umbrella

Using reflective umbrellas is one of the top methods for achieving diffused soft lighting often used in portrait, model and product photography. Commercial photo umbrellas designed for this purpose range in price, at time of publication, from $12 upward. However, any photography enthusiast can make one using any old or rarely-used working umbrella.

Instructions

Decide on the reflective color you want for your umbrella. White creates the common daylight color diffusion, silver reflects cooler light and gold reflects a warmer shade. Other colors like red, blue or green will create the photographic color prominence you want.

Open the umbrella to the fullest and mask the stainless or metal stem of the umbrella. This will ensure that paint doesnt get onto the umbrella stem -- which means you'll have a smooth glide when opening it.

Spray paint the umbrellas concave underside with the color of your choice. Spray paint the umbrella's metal framing along with the cloth. Don't worry about the color bleeding through since the umbrella fabric is liquid-proof. Spray paint these items outdoors for better ventilation. Otherwise, spread old newspapers where you paint to protect indoor walls, floors and furnishing. Wear a disposable mask to minimize inhaling the spray particles.

Let the open umbrella dry for an hour or two. Ensure that every inch of fabric gets thoroughly painted, but don't saturate it so that it soaks and paint starts to flow. While a nonuniform paint job wont affect the reflection and diffusion, its ideal to have a comprehensive paint job by applying a second or third coat after each drying.

Remove the umbrella handle. Photo umbrellas don't have one and the metal stem can easily fit into the standard umbrella brackets or hot shoe adapters in lighting tripods. Most weather umbrellas have a molded plastic handle that you can break apart or unscrew. Alternatively, you can just saw off the handle at the point where it ends along the metal stem. A large construction-grade cutter can do the same thing. Either way, file off the edges using a medium-grade iron file to smooth out the metal stem's potentially harmful sharp end.

How To Create a Website - How To Make a Website
www.2createawebsites.com
How To Create a Website has lots of free web design tutorials for beginners, learn to create a WordPress website and how to make a website with site builders.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR CHILD A MODEL IN NEW YORK D&G
www.dgphotostudio.com/modeling/children-modeling
Children Modeling. What you should know before spending money on children modeling portfolio.
Photo Radar Scam - Info on How to Beat Your Photo Radar or
photoradarscam.com/getout.php
Defense Strategies, Information to beat Red Light Camera and Photo Radar Cameras Tickets and Citations in Court
John Chow dot Com - I Make Money Online By Telling People
www.johnchow.com
John Chow best known for showing the income power of blogging by taking my blog from zero to over $40,000 per month in two years. Visit JohnChow.com for more information.
How to build a powder coating oven - Smecca.com: A
www.smecca.com/2012/05/how-to-build-a-powder-coating-oven
How to build a powder coating oven. WARNING: If the thought of listening to some random dude you've never met going on for hours and hours about sheet metal, oven ...
How to Make Money from Home - Make Money Online Fast -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZOuC8FraM0
Click Here -- http://financialabsolute.com/ -- Click Here How to Make Money from Home - Make Money Online Fast We want to help you gain financial freedom ...
Build Your Page - How to create a Facebook business Page
https://www.facebook.com/business/build
Your Page is the central place to grow your business, build your brand and develop relationships with your customers.
How To Make Money Fast - How To Make Fast Money - How To Make ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIsaEgmykSQ
CLICK HERE - http://goo.gl/n1ebY - Start Making Money Every 60 Seconds Right NOW! How To Make Money Fast - How To Make Fast Money - How To Make Extra
DIY Mannequin Tutorial How To Make A Display Bust For
www.cookonstrike.com/diy-mannequin-tutorial-how-to-make-a-display...
Unless you have a nice live model available at all times, there must be times you wish you had a mannequin or display bust to use in your product pictures or to model ...
Think beyond the duct tape wallet. - How to make stuff out of duct ...
www.artduck-o.com
Duct-Tape Alligator Puppet. August 27th, 2012 No Comments ' Date: 2012.08.27 Category: Craft, Kids, Ramblings Response: 0 (NOTE: I *know* its been a crazy ...
Expert photography blogs, tips, techniques, camera reviews ...
www.adorama.com/alc
Adorama Learning Center How-to tips, buying guides, tutorials from AdoramaTV, product reviews for better photography, video, and more!
Flickr: Help: Galleries - Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing
www.flickr.com/help/galleries
Help / FAQ / Galleries. What is a gallery? For whatever you find interesting, fascinating, or mind-blowing on Flickr, galleries are a way to curate up to 18 public ...
3 Simple Ways to Share What You Make - Instructables - Make,
www.instructables.com/index
Jul 19, 2013 3 Simple Ways to Share What You Make. With Instructables you can share what you make with the world and tap into an ever-growing community of
Obama Defends NSA, Says America Has To Make Choices
www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/obama-defends-nsa_n_3406448.html
Jun 07, 2013 WASHINGTON President Barack Obama declared Friday that America is "going to have to make some choices" balancing privacy and security, launching a ...
SBI! - Build An e-BUSINESS
buildit.sitesell.com
SBI! is the all-in-one site-building-hosting-and-marketing system of software tools that delivers success. And we prove it.
HowStuffWorks "Business & Money"
money.howstuffworks.com
10 Ways to Make Money on the Side. With the exception of winning the lottery, making serious money takes time and effort. But there are legitimate ways to make extra ...
How to setup Asterisk 1.8 on CentOS 5 SelbyTech
www.selbytech.com/2011/05/how-to-setup-asterisk-1-8-on-centos-5
Installing Asterisk 1.8 from source on a CentOS 5.6 machine, explained in a simple, clear, and concise manner.
Photography and post-processing tutorials from beginner to ...
photo.tutsplus.com
Phototuts+ is a community for Photographers and post-processors. Learn about lighting, exposure, workflows, photo critiquing, Adobe Lightroom and more
Photoflex Lighting School Photoflex
www.photoflex.com/pls
Basic Lighting. A good place to start. These lessons demonstrate professional lighting techniques using only basic lighting tools. Having good lighting equipment is ...
Cloud-Delivered Web Security - Umbrella by OpenDNS
www.umbrella.com
Umbrella protects users from malware, botnets and phishing and provides Web filtering. Umbrella protects networks, Wi-Fi hotspots, laptops and iOS devices.
How to Do Desktop Publishing and Design
desktoppub.about.com
Jul 19, 2013 Make Your Own Trading Cards. Put yourself on a trading card or create trading cards for special occasions or tasks. (Image: Creative Commons License
Rice PuttuArisi Maavu Puttu RecipeHow to make Sweet Puttu ...
cooking.jingalala.org/2013/02/arisi-maavu-puttu-recipe-how-to-make...
Ingredients: To make Puttu Powder [Puttu Podi] Rice Flour / Pacharisi maavu 1 cup; Water 3/4 cups or less; Salt tsp. *** To Mix with Puttu ***
Homemade Bird Suet Recipe How To Make Suet For Birds
www.artistic-garden.com/easy-homemade-bird-suet-recipe
A homemade bird suet recipe saves you money over store-bought suet cakes. My backyard birds love this suet. Great for bluebirds, woodpeckers and all birds.