Brollys - Do you get what you pay for??

[Raptor Mike]

When I decided I wanted to try portraits I bought a cheap setup for one my 430EXII. I brought this brolly with the stand and the flash holder in the Frequently Bought Together section. The brolly on it's own is only £6.53 and has good reviews. Altogether the set up was around £30 so if I didn't get on with portraits I hadn't lost loads of money. But I have been having difficulty in softening some of my lighting (mainly due to harsh shadows on a background that's too close), but I've also been using it for other close ups of lego and TP52 stuff and although I don't want to blame to the brolly for what is probably my mistakes I wondered if it could be a factor. There has to be a reason why people buy expensive brollys instead of this cheap one off Amazon. If it is can you recommend a decent brolly for speedlights please?

Thanks, Mike

 

[Garry Edwards]

Yes, better umbrellas may produce a softer light, and may have a better reflective surface, but their main quality is the difference in build quality.

It's really all about relative size and distance. My suspicion here is that you had the brolly too far away to produce really soft lighting.
Bear in mind that the inverse square law applies to relative size (fall off of relative size over distance) in exactly the same way that it applies to fall off of light over distance, so if the umbrella or other light source is twice as far away, then it is in effect only 1/4 of the size.

 

[Raptor Mike]

Thanks Garry. I've been getting the brolly as close as I can without it being in shot with my shots for 52, I may be able to try getting them closer for portraits though