Bounce Flash Examples

Flash pointed directly at the subject. Notice the glare on the books and the hard flash shadow under the stool.




Flash tilted up to 45 degrees. Now the light comes from above (rather than hitting straight in the center of the orange, a really unnatural look). This is giving a more natural look with softer light coming from above -- but we still see glare on the books and little flash shadow under the stool.




Flash pointed straight up. Light is from above, glare is gone. In photographing people with this technique, we'd want to look at where the shadows fall on the face -- from above, the light can be blocked from the eyes by brow ridges, depending on the angle. In that case, using a card built into the flash or an index card attached via rubberband might be a good way to add a little fill. Alternatively, a flash diffuser or a reflector might help.





An example of "dragging the shutter" technique. Using about a 1/4 of a second shutter speed with the flash set to "2nd curtain sync" and moving the camera let the ambient light provide a little streaking / ghosting in the image.