![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/bar-mitzvah\/Jenni-BM-1175.jpg\")
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Because I so often use on-camera bounce flash<\/strong><\/a>, one of the questions I’m regularly asked is,\u00a0what if there is nothing to bounce your flash off?<\/a>\u00a0There is also the variant – what if there isn’t enough light from the bounced flash?<\/p>\n In both cases, the answer is the same – you improvise! The photograph above is from a recent Bat Mitzvah, showing the big group shot of the kids. If you’ve photographed Bar \/ Bat Mitzvahs before, you know this is coming up, and you have to be prepared for it.<\/p>\n You’re prepared for it by: You can not just be passive and go … oh, oops! You need to be prepared and have done some homework before any event you photograph. (It seems such an obvious thing to even need stating like that!)<\/p>\n This particular venue has a really awkwardly shaped ceiling, and it has a bronze color in places. So it makes bounce flash photography a bit of a challenge, but I was able to get pretty good results by pushing the ISO higher. Using a camera like the Nikon D4 is an obvious boost here!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Camera settings & photo gear (or equivalents) used for this image<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But with a Bar Mitzvah, I also know that:<\/p>\n 1.) I will have to photograph family groups before the event. So I have a setup ready for that with off-camera flash. For this evening, I used a setup as described in this article:\u00a0positioning your flash for the formals<\/a>. However, photographing the groups in a smaller room here, I had the off-camera flash closer than described in that article. Obviously.<\/p>\n 2.) I will have to photograph the candle-lighting. (People at a static position from the camera – this makes manual flash more likely.)<\/p>\n 3.) I will have to photograph the big group of kids.<\/p>\n For that, when the candle-lighting started, I had placed an off-camera speedlight on a tall light-stand behind me on the dance-floor somewhere, to blast some extra light. Depending on the venue, it is usually with the additional off-camera flash bounced into the ceiling – because I don’t want a large white shoot-through umbrella to block the guests’ view. So for important parts of the event, I had an off-camera bounce flash ready to add more light, as needed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Camera settings & photo gear (or equivalents) used for this image<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This also means that when the group shot arrives, I move back, grab the ladder, and climb up.<\/p>\n Camera settings & photo gear (or equivalents) used for this image<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I had a wider lens, the\u00a0Nikon 14-24mm f\/2.8G AF-S<\/a>\u00a0(affiliate<\/em>),\u00a0on my other camera over my shoulder to switch to, if my workhorse 24-70 wasn’t wide enough. No frantic groping for another lens in the camera bag! I was prepared\u00a0for that, just in case.<\/p>\n Back to the original question: what do I do if I don’t have enough light from my bounce flash? \u00a0Well, I do something else.<\/p>\n When I get that question, I always have to wonder if the question is meant as a challenge: “weeeeell, bounce flash isn’t going to work all the time, you know!” … or whether people really do<\/strong> want to know. The answer seems so obvious?<\/p>\n So there it is – I improvise. I adapt. It’s never just the one thing with lighting – on-camera bounce flash. That would be too limiting. As an event photographer,\u00a0I\u00a0would be negligent to arrive with just that, and then hope for the best. I always<\/strong> have more gear than would be necessary. Not just back-up gear, but faster lenses than my f\/2.8 zooms, and more light than just a speedlight<\/a>.<\/p>\n You have<\/strong> to be ready, and you have to be able\u00a0to improvise and adapt.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What if bounce flash isn’t strong enough? Because I so often use on-camera bounce flash, one of the questions I’m regularly asked is,\u00a0what if there is nothing to bounce your flash off?\u00a0There is also the variant – what if there isn’t enough light from the bounced flash? In both cases, the answer is the same Read more inside…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[484,111,485,15,22],"tags":[710,900,56],"yst_prominent_words":[5194,5233,5203,5181,5188,5221,1842,1913,5207,5185,5102,5179,5198,5211,1851,5227,5202,5216,1911,5206],"class_list":{"0":"post-13651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bar-mitzvah-photography","8":"category-bounce-flash-photography","9":"category-event-photography","10":"category-flash-photography","11":"category-lighting","12":"tag-additional-lighting-at-event-photography","13":"tag-event-photography","14":"tag-flash-photography-tips","15":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13651"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42277,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13651\/revisions\/42277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13651"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNot only that, but you need to be prepared to improvise<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
\n– having a ladder handy to stand on
\n– a wide enough lens and enough space to move back into
\n– enough light!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/bar-mitzvah\/Jenni-BM-1990.jpg\")
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Related links<\/h2>\n
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