{"id":94,"date":"2008-01-16T22:10:28","date_gmt":"2008-01-17T03:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetneil.com\/tangents\/2008\/01\/16\/choosing-your-direction\/"},"modified":"2018-01-03T18:59:31","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T22:59:31","slug":"choosing-your-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/choosing-your-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"choosing your direction"},"content":{"rendered":"

specifically choosing your direction of bounce flash<\/h1>\n

The reason why I want (if possible) only indirect light from my on-camera flash, is that any direct flash looks too harsh.<\/p>\n

Here’s a typical example:
\nAs you can see, using the Stofen helps to disperse some light and is a huge step up from direct flash.\u00a0 But you can also see in the entire frame that the light from top to bottom is uneven.\u00a0 In the close-up you can see how there is a hard shadow on the bride’s face, as well as some specular reflection on her skin from the flash directly from the Stofen.\u00a0 And in some way, any time there is flash directly from the flash modifier on your subject, you get this kind of light.\u00a0 It is inevitable.<\/p>\n

On the right-hand side images, I simply took the Stofen off, and pointed the flash over my shoulder into the rest of the hallway.\u00a0 As you can clearly see,\u00a0having only indirect<\/em> <\/strong>light from the flashgun, completely\u00a0changes the look of the image.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

.
\n<\/strong>Remember : \u00a0any time your subject can see your flash-tube you have direct flash.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This implies that if you are\u00a0“bouncing” flash with the flash set to 45′ upwards, you’re not doing\u00a0anything to improve your flash photography.
\nThere are\u00a0 occasional\u00a0times to do that with specific intent, but mostly it just gives bad results.<\/p>\n

The key idea here<\/strong> is that bouncing your flash does not<\/strong> mean simply putting a flash modifier on your flashgun\u00a0and pointing it at the ceiling.<\/p>\n

As to why I prefer not<\/strong> to bounce from the ceiling\u00a0– \u00a0in a studio set-up you would most likely never set up a soft-box directly over someone’s head as the only light-source. Similarly, why would you want to bounce flash from above someone, if there are walls and other surfaces around to bounce from? Pointing the flashgun upwards is a poor choice compared to other possibilities when shooting indoors.<\/p>\n

It is with this approach that I want to specifically choose where I want my light to come from.<\/p>\n

There are<\/em><\/strong> times I do want to throw light forward from my flashgun.
\nBut this is a specific choice, whether a short-cut or a specifically intended thing, or just a limitation of the scenario I am working in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

specifically choosing your direction of bounce flash The reason why I want (if possible) only indirect light from my on-camera flash, is that any direct flash looks too harsh. Here’s a typical example: As you can see, using the Stofen helps to disperse some light and is a huge step up from direct flash.\u00a0 But Read more inside…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30461,"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":[15,42,1],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-94","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-flash-photography","8":"category-technique","9":"category-uncategorized","10":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94"}],"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=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43637,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/43637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}