Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

Check this out . . . very interesting!

http://www.litegenius.com/umbrella

The Watcher

This would eliminate the hot spot that happens with a shoot through umbrella. The indirect light would decreases the amount of light passing through the umbrella. A silver scoop, if they make one, would be helpful. I've only seen bright-white ones.

This setup is similar to using a reflective umbrella with a softbox cover. You loose a lot of light with the cover on.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I had a second shooter about a week ago, that had no idea that the size of the flash in the umbrella made a difference.

All I do ( to lose as little light as possible) is to use the umbrella out as far as it will go from the flash, and then use the wide angle diffuser that flips out in front of the flash. I get approximately 90% coverage on the umbrella, and I'm not losing (wasting) light by bouncing it all around.

Might be worth a try to just use the wide diffuser and make sure that you are manually zoomed as wide as possible. I think that's a step that people tend to miss, because they rely so much on the automatic features of the speedlights.

Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

I've tried both ways and find that I only lose about 2/3rds of a stop using the Lite-Scoop . . . about the same as having the speed light zoomed all the way out and the diffuser in place. 100% coverage is still better than 90%. Inside my brollie it works even better.