Tangents

photography tutorials, reviews & workshops

tangents photography blog
learn : discuss : share
  • Tangents
  • Tutorials
    • Flash Photography
    • Wedding Photography
    • Studio Photography
    • Posing People
    • Understanding Your Camera
    • Exposure metering
    • BFT
    • Best Photo Books
  • Reviews
    • Sony
    • Nikon
    • Canon
    • Fuji
    • Profoto
    • lighting gear
  • Workshops
    • Info: Workshops
    • In-person
      tutoring sessions
    • Online
      tutoring sessions
    • Workshops in
      New Jersey (NJ)
    • Workshops in
      New York (NYC)
    • Photo walks in NYC
    • Studio Workshop
    • Video tutorials
    • Workshop results
  • Books
    • On-Camera Flash (revised ed.)
    • Direction & Quality of Light
    • Off-Camera Flash Photography
    • Lighting & Design
    • On-Camera Flash (1st ed.)
  • Projects
    • Two Perspectives
    • B&W Infrared
    • Vintage lenses
    • Time-lapse photography
  • Info
    • About
    • Contact
    • My Photo Gear
    • Books by NvN
    • Join us on Facebook
    • Acclaim
    • Success Stories

Search Results for: bouncing flash behind me

Bounce flash & direction of light

March 12, 2010 Neil vN 41 Comments

Bounce flash & direction of light

An aspect to flash photography that I frequently underline in the articles on this site, is that we need to carefully consider the direction of light from our flash when we bounce our flash.  Sometimes we just need to bounce the flash behind us into the room to get soft light.  But when we have multiple walls / surfaces we can bounce the flash off, then our choices become more interesting ... especially when we do portraits. This is Carly Erin, a delightful model that I photographed for my own portfolio: an intimate photo session. What I  Read more inside...

Flash photography tips

Flash Photography Techniques Using video lights  ~  Flash photography tips ~  More articles about flash

Flash photography tips

The preceding pages, and the entire Tangents blog, contain a lot of information, whether techniques, ideas, equipment info, or random snippets.  The posts cover a wide range of subject material, but mostly deal with flash photography, lighting, and general photography technique.  But I'd like to bring the essential topics on flash photography together to one solid starting point. This page then lists the most important advice that I can give you  Read more inside...

Why use an on-camera flash modifier that is black, instead of white?

December 22, 2009 Neil vN 29 Comments

Why use an on-camera flash modifier that is black, instead of white?

This question repeatedly comes up as response to the various articles here on my favorite light modifier - the black foamie thing. For anyone new to this, here are the two main articles on how I use a piece of black foam to flag my on-camera speedlight. The question invariably comes up: why a piece of black foam and not a white card or a piece of white foam? The short answer: The idea behind the BFT is that it acts as a flag, not a bounce card.  Read more inside...

bounce flash examples – wedding receptions

December 19, 2009 Neil vN 46 Comments

bounce flash examples - wedding receptions

Over the course of the past year or so, I've made a steady attempt to move this blog away from being wedding-heavy, and take the material more towards general photography, and photographing people. However, since the most of my work is as done as a wedding photographer in New Jersey, I still get a large number of questions which relate to wedding photography - and specifically, photographing the reception.  So I thought I would expand a little on the techniques I use in photographing wedding receptions. A few years back, I would  Read more inside...

the black foamie thing – on-camera flash modifier

November 21, 2009 Neil vN 100 Comments

on-camera flash modifier - the black foamie thing

Also make sure you check out this video clip where I demonstrate how I use the black foamie thing to flag the light from my on-camera flash. In essence, the (in)famous Black Foamie Thing is just a simple little device that I use to shield my speedlight's output from directly hitting my subject when I bounce my flash forward.  It has another benefit in that since I usually fasten to the 'underside' of the flash-head, it blocks light from hitting people in the face that are standing behind me or next to me.  It really does help with  Read more inside...

directional bounce flash

August 28, 2009 Neil vN 42 Comments

directional bounce flash

With this recent wedding - the same one as posted here- the ceremony was moved indoors because of the approaching thunderstorms.  The ceremony was going to be held in the large reception room in the late afternoon, under the chuppah.   I once again had no choice but to add flash to balance the shaded side to areas lit by window light. I want to post this image as an example again of how I use directional light from my on-camera flash.  Instead of using a generic light modifier on top of my speedlight, I used The Black Foamie Thing.  I was using the  Read more inside...

bounce flash photography – short lighting

August 3, 2009 Neil vN 71 Comments

bounce flash example - short lighting

Having just finished the second of the two workshops here in Cork, Ireland, I feel unusually energized after the two busy days.  Partly because the two workshops ran very smoothly, (courtesy of Liam Ramsell who coordinated these workshops), but also because I had two groups of genuinely nice people. On top of that, I am just enamored of the country and its people.  I love it here! But back to the photography: The image above is of our one model, Noreen, and was taken during the practical session at a photography workshop in Cork, Ireland,  Read more inside...

bouncing flash off walls outdoors for fill-flash

July 20, 2009 Neil vN 12 Comments

fill-flash outdoors by bouncing flash off walls

When I recently photographed one of my couples in Hoboken, we worked for a while in one of the colorful alleys.  To lift the shadows a little bit, I used flash.  However a softbox might have been overkill when just a touch of fill-flash is needed .. especially when there is a useful wall directly behind me.  Read more inside...

On-camera flash light modifiers? Remove the plastic diffuser cup!

June 7, 2009 Neil vN 52 Comments

Choosing on-camera flash light modifiers

One of the things I always emphasize if you want to achieve the best results from your on-camera speedlight, is to be aware of the direction of light from your flashgun. When you know which direction you want your light from your flash to come from, then the simplest way to figure out what direction to bounce your flash towards, is to consider the simple geometry of it all.  Yup, triangular geometry from your days in primary school.  And from Science class in high school, you can also consider the Angle of Incidence = Angle of  Read more inside...

On-camera bounce flash for natural looking light

May 22, 2009 Neil vN 8 Comments

On-camera bounce flash for natural looking light

This photo of Precious, a model at a photography workshop, was taken during part of the practical session where emphasis was placed on getting soft directional light from an on-camera speedlight.  The trick here is to absolutely have no hint of light coming from the camera's view-point.  To do this, I once again used the Black Foamie Thing  to control the light from my on-camera speedlight, shielding the light from the flash. I pointed my speedlight 90' to my left,  so that the light reflected back towards our model from that  Read more inside...

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • …
  • 8
  • Next Page »

categories

Articles & Tutorials

  • • About myself & this site
    • Books by Neil vN
    • Best photography books
    • Black foamie thing
    • Photographers’ success stories
  • • Flash Photography Techniques
    • Natural looking flash
    • Flash + Ambient light
    • Dragging the shutter
    • Bouncing your flash
    • On-camera flash outdoors
    • Exposure metering
    • Flash exposure compensation
    • Bounce flash examples
    • Which is the best flashgun?
    • Flash brackets
    • Off-camera flash photography
    • Flash photography basics
    • Using video lights
    • Flash photography tips
  • • Photography workshops NJ / NYC
    • Models @ photography workshops
tutorials:
flash photography
Photography
Workshops

All rights reserved. Copyright © Neil van Niekerk 2025 · Customization by The Traveling Designer

Copyright © 2025 · NvN on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in