Years ago I paid $10 for a box of “miscellaneous studio lighting” at a garage sale, then never tried using it until today. In the Larson Lighting Inc. box is a floor stand, one of the two Reflectasol umbrellas, two lights (one with 2 bulbs!), and a cunning hand grip for mounting a camera and a light. The Reflectasol umbrella has a glittery side that can be used as a reflector, or you can diffuse your light through it.  The second light may be a flash, but no bulbs so I will ignore that for now.  There are no instructions, just a few pictures that barely…

Anyway here is my first experiment with using the umbrella and light for a diffused lighting, with the studio in grey & cloudy winter morning light. I used the studio light through the umbrella, and had my studio overhead lighting on. For the last photo I added a flourescent truecolor reading light approximately 4′ away aimed at my subject.

I do think the umbrella and bright light may be helpful in getting decent photos of my 3-D work.