{"id":9569,"date":"2011-11-29T02:35:11","date_gmt":"2011-11-29T06:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=9569"},"modified":"2020-06-13T19:22:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-13T23:22:57","slug":"off-camera-bounce-flash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/off-camera-bounce-flash\/","title":{"rendered":"Off-camera bounce flash"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Off-camera bounce flash<\/h1>\n

This portrait of an unusual model, Ulorin Vex<\/a>, was truly simple in its execution – most of the work was done by Ulorin Vex with her outfit and her striking looks. Then, the composition and choice of background was the hotel room with this stripy wall paper. I thought the bold yellow and green stripes would complement her bright red outfit, without competing. Then the lighting – off-camera bounce flash – was simplicity itself. I had a speedlight that I bounced off a white surface to create a large light source for flattering, soft light. But it took me a few steps getting there …<\/p>\n

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We did need to bring in additional lighting, since the light in the hotel room was too uneven.<\/p>\n

My first instinct was to use a medium sized softbox with the speedlight. Here is the result, as shot with a Lastolite EZYBOX 24\u00d724″ softbox<\/a>\u00a0(affiliate<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The light looks great – soft but with enough contrast to make the lighting dynamic should we have Ulorin Vex pose with the direction of lighting in mind.<\/p>\n

The only problem for me – since we were shooting in a smallish hotel room, she had to stand close to the wall, and her shadow became too pronounced for my liking.<\/p>\n

I wanted softer light – in other words, a large light source.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>

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I then set up the speedlight, sans softbox, to bounce off these white window blinds. That should work.<\/p>\n

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But again there was a hiccup – some of the bounced light hit the mirror on the wall, creating this distinct shadow to the side. Here is the test shot, showing the shadow to the right of the image. It might work with a specific idea in mind, but that isn’t what I intended with the photographs I wanted of her.<\/p>\n

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To block the light from hitting the mirror, I had to shield the light from hitting the mirror. In other words, I had to flag the light from the flash so that it would mostly just hit the white blinds. For this, I used the infamous Black Foamie Thing<\/a>\u00a0– a simple inexpensive way to flag and control my flash.<\/p>\n

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Materials for the flash modifier used \u2013 the black foamie thing<\/h2>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
\n\t\t\t\t\tI use the black foamie thing (BFT) as a truly inexpensive flash modifier to flag my on-camera flash to give me lighting indoors that truly look nothing like on-camera flash.The piece of foam<\/strong><\/a> (Amazon<\/em>), can be ordered via this link. I cut the sheet into smaller pieces.

The BFT is held in position by two hair bands<\/strong><\/a> (Amazon<\/em>), and the BFT is usually placed on the under-side<\/strong> of the flash-head.

The linked articles will give clearer instruction, especially the video clip on using the black foamie thing<\/a>.\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>
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Camera settings & Photo gear (or alternatives) used during this session<\/h2>\n