Manipulating your on-camera flash

Posted on April 19, 2011
Filed Under Lexia Frank, Photos | 3 Comments

This is the first part in a series about about using an on-camera flash

What I want to chat about today is simply how to manipulate the direction of light to make an awesome shot. Literally, that is it. Just turning the direction of the light (settings staying EXACTLY the same) can make a shot go from HORRIBLE to awesome.

I used to say that I was an ‘all natural light photographer’ claiming that flash and artificial light were inferior to natural light, and basically they were the devil and I would never stoop to that level. HA! I was all high-and-mighty when in reality I was really just scared of flash and artificial light…because I didn’t know how to use it.

And then, of course, I ran into situations where there was no natural light in weird situations like, say at night. And good photo ops. don’t just stop after the sun goes down. If I wanted to take a picture, I had to use flash. And the more comfortable I got with it, the more I realized I could manipulate my flash to be a natural light source, or at least mimic it really well.

­­We have all heard that using an on-camera flash is bad. But that’s not necessarily true. Using your built-in on- camera flash is not a great idea, but attaching a speedlight (aka ‘flash’ like the Nikon sb900) and bending the light to your will can turn an awful lighting situation into an awesome one.

Are you ready to be blown away by simplicity? Here we go. (I love simple fixes! And also ones that cost zero money! Hooray!)

Here is the worst possible scenario: A straight on, harsh flash. I am photographing a round object with a slightly reflective surface so you can clearly see where the light is coming from and how it affects the object. For this entire series, I’m shooting in an almost completely dark room, with ISO 500, shutter speed 250 (note that most cameras will not allow you to shoot above 200-250 while using an on-camera flash- this is your ‘sync speed’), and aperture f/2.2. My flash is on a basic automatic- TTL (through the lens) mode.

You can see how harsh and abrasive that light is. If it were a portrait, you’d run into problems with red-eye, awful harsh shadows behind your subject, and it just makes the subject look flat. Straight-on doesn’t allow for any shadows to be created on the surfact of your subject to help round it out and give it dimension. Because a built-in flash can only shoot your subject straight on, this is what you will get each and every time.

Now lets say you have an external flash that you can mount on your hot shoe (Your hot shoe is that metal thingy that is directly on top of your camera) like my Nikon SB600. Most of these flashes have the ability to swivel and tilt. My flash was sort of expensive, but you can get super cheap ones too (like, 50 bucks cheap) that can swivel the way you would need.

The most basic adjustment I make is to merely point the flash straight upward toward the ceiling. You’re now bouncing the light off the ceiling and onto your subject (and subsequently the rest of the room) giving a much softer light.

Ah! So much better!

But you may not want that light to be coming directly from above if you’re shooting portraits. Why? For the same reason you don’t want to be shooting outside when the sun is directly overhead; harsh shadows are created in the eye sockets, under the nose, and pretty much everywhere.

It’s just pretty… harsh.

And, what’s more, what if you don’t have a ceiling to bounce that flash off of? Pointing it straight up would be just wasting a whole lot of light (and battery power).

For these situations I use a light modifier. There are ALL SORTS of them out there, and I’m actually pinning after a gary fong light modifier right now. I have a lumiquest quick bounce and it acts as a white ceiling right above my flash. Because of its shape, it actually sends more light directly onto my subject, eliminating those harsh shadows under the eyes from a regular ceiling bounce.

I know it doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but you’ll notice there is more light on the underside of the bulb, where the previous picture was all shadow. This makes a huge difference for portraits! Now we’ve got nice soft light, with a kick in the shadows. Bonus: You don’t have to have a ceiling to do it, meaning you can even be outside and get great light.

On occasion, I have needed to tilt my flash to bounce off the wall directly behind me. Not often, mind you, but there have been times. One time was because the walls to my left and right as well as the ceiling were painted with wild colors. Make sure you note the color of the walls around you as they will throw a color cast on your image. Remember that photography is just painting with light, so if you bounce your light off (mix it with) a colored wall, your image will be tinted with that color. You’ll notice this image is slightly warmer, any guesses why?

I’ll give you a hint… I’m a brunette

This image is still not really optimal; pointing the flash directly behind me still gives me that straight on flash look, albeit slightly softer.

Here is my favorite way to manipulate my flash- rotating it to bounce off a sidewall. I love this because it gives the effect of natural window light, something photographers covet.

See how nicely the ball is rounded out now? You can see the light at one side, the little bright spot of where my flash actually is located (directly in front of the bulb, but pointing to the left), and the beautiful graduation to darkness on the right hand side. It gives the bulb shape, something a straight on flash cannot do. The cast shadows to the right of the bulb grounds it to the surface, and because in this scenario the light is more directional and the entire room is not illuminated, (like if we were bouncing from the ceiling) it gives a little more spatial depth to the rest of the scene. In other words, the background is not so flat. We now have dimension in the object, a nice cast shadow to ground our object, and some special dimension relating the object to its surroundings.

So, the theme is… bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce! If you’re looking to make a well-lit subject and stop red-eye, bouncing is where it’s at.

Next time we’ll be doing this with actual models, but it’s a lot easier to understand the difference between directional light with a simple round object! Also, we’ll be covering when you should be using your flash, and when you should try to get by without it. Also, when to use your flash during the daytime when the sun is out. And finally, getting your flash to do really super cool things!

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