Detail photographs with controlled on-camera bounce flash

A detail photo from a recent wedding — a fairly uncomplicated ring shot. This is straight out camera, sent directly to my phone. No manipulation or editing at all, except for a mild crop to center the image. The light on this ring is entirely on-camera bounce flash, using the Black Foamie Thing. This on-camera flash modifier acts as a flag, and allows me to better control the direction of the light from my bounce flash. I want to bounce my flash into the direction that I wanted the light to come from.

That is one of my key decisions when deciding how I want to bounce my flash – I want to bounce the flash into the direction I want the light to come from. In this case, I wanted the light to come from in front of me, to skim back across the surface of the rings. This then leaves the area of the ring closest to the camera, somewhat in shadow, giving a kind of three-dimensional quality to the photo.

I’m still impressed with how subtle you can make on-camera bounce flash appear, with some careful thought about the direction of your light.

The awkwardly held selfie-BTS photo will help explain how I bounced my flash.