Here’s how the portraits came out. Phew. Quite happy with the lighting on these. Except maybe the middle one, too harsh.
I found out there IS a difference between putting the wide angle flap down on the 580EX flash vs say, maximum zoom on the flash. With the flap down the light is more even, with it on max zoom, the light gets brighter in the center, then falling off the sides faster.
You can also slide the umbrella closer to the flash for a smaller light source, which in turn produces a different effect. So yes, there is a small bit of control you can play around with using umbrellas. The only problem is that they don’t last very long. The white turns yellow after a while, and the spokes on my umbrellas broke after falling over too many times.
