Bouncing Off The Walls

Last weeks challenge was to create an image using bounce flash. The goal was to create an image that had directional lighting.

On camera Direct Flash

Very often, photographers will dismiss using on camera flash because of the harsh, specular light it creates on the subject. Two weeks ago I was discussing on camera flash techniques to my students at Focal Point. The first image, shown here, was taken with direct on camera flash. Notice the small, bright specular's, the harsh shadows, and even though the wall was some distance away, the very obvious shadow on it.

So how do you have an on camera flash and still create directional lighting. The answer is in bouncing the flash. But from where? The first thing that comes to mind is to bounce it off the ceiling. the problem here is that you wind up with office lighting and racoon eyes. The better option is to try and bounce it from the side. The easiest is to get side lighting is to bounce the flash off a wall. If one isn't within range, try a reflector or a white shirt. Anything that will bring the light from the side.

On Camera bounced from wall

In the class, we bounced the light off the wall, the results are shown here. Some great information about flash photography can be found on Digital ProTalk. This link, David Ziser - Digital Pro-Talk , will take you to a video on his site that speaks directly to this topic. If you want to learn more about flash photography, I would encourage you to check out this link.

Have fun and great shooting. Come back tomorrow for next weeks challenge