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Old 06-02-2008, 11:54 PM  
mikesouth
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BMBradley pretty much hit it on the head.

as a rule of thumb the diffiused light through or off of a white umbrella will soften your picture ( make it less sharp ) while a silver umbrella will give off more spectral light (sharper). If you really want to see the difference shoot water droplets like rain at a fast shutter speed using both.

I assume you know why and when to use umbrellas or any diffusion.

Aother thing you may want to consider is your aperture, while it does control your depth of field it can also be problematic in terms of sharpness.

consider even a high dollar F2.8 APO 70-200MM lens

that F2.8 at 200mm will give you some very pleasing depth of field for portrait photography but thet aperture will be drastically softer in terms of picture quality than if you shot it at F8.

for the best sharpness and detail you always want to use the middle aperture range of your lens usually F8-F11

even a pricey lens shot at the widest (or narrowest) aperture will not have the quality of a n inexpensive lens shot at its mid range.

many people mistakenly believe that the quality of the lens alone is responsible for the sharpness but thats simply wrong.

What all this means is...make sure your diffused lighting is using the aperture that would correspond with the picture quality you want.
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