Another shoot-thru option: I’ve been using 42″ shoot-thru umbrellas that have a covered flat side. It’s reflective white on the inside and opaque black on the outside. The two big advantages are: 1. more light is forced out the front, not bounced back and wasted into the room. And, 2. it’s not so obnoxious for others in the room when the flashes go off. [At cancer patient seminars I set up a small portrait studio with two lights and a backdrop to shoot groups of 2-5 people. I usually share an area with the snack tables or something similar, so it's nice to not be blasting the rest of the room behind me.]

Sometimes the space I get for my mini-portrait studio is pretty limited so shoot-thru umbrellas are excellent choice since I can have them very close to the subjects.

The disadvantage of the backing is I cannot have the umbrella extend too far from the flash for wider light spread. That’s easily remedied using an Omnibounce diffuser on the flash inside the umbrella. The other disadvantage is that the umbrella cannot be angled down too far before the edge bumps into the lightstand. This is usually not much of a problem since shoot-thrus work pretty well (for portraits anyway) close in and aimed only slightly down or horizontal.

Because I have to fly to locations, I’m trying to figure ways to reduce weight and volume of my “mini-studio” kit, so I am considering switching to “open-back” shoot-thru umbrellas which weigh a few ounces less and have about half the volume. (This is in addition to creatively cutting weight/volume in bigger ways.)

In this comparison, I realized that the umbrella gives out hotspot.

I’m still curious with the softbox. What if you try to put the flash more power on the softbox. I just wanted how it handle hotspot over umbrella.

If I have a softbox, I do it. I don’t trust my DIY enough. It gives me the look that I wanted but really curious about non-homemade SB.

Thanks for taking the time to share.

Muliadi S.