Night and Low-light Photography Photo Workshop

coming from the ceiling can cause shadows

under the eyes. You can just aim the flash

head straight up at the ceiling and the light

bounces down at the subject from the ceiling.

You can also aim the flash at an angle over

the subject so that the light bounces down on

the subject.

    ■   Bounce the light off the ceiling and a wall. If

you can adjust the angle of the flash head and

rotate the flash head, then you can aim the

The accessory flash unit, especially when used to
bounce the light, will achieve a better result than
using the built-in flash every time. The key is to
know what to bounce the flash off of. Your
choices are to:

■   Bounce the light off the ceiling. This is the

basic bounce, and it works best when the ceil-
ing is white and not too high. The ceiling acts
as a big reflector so that the small, hard light
of the flash turns into a huge, softer light. The
only downside of this method is that the light

ABOUT THIS PHOTO This photo of Nicole was taken with the
flash pointed straight at her; you can see the hard-edge shadow on the
left side of the image. Taken at 1/30 second, f/3.5, and ISO 200.

ABOUT THIS PHOTO The same location and subject as in

Figure 4-7 but with the flash aimed over her head and bounced off the

ceiling. Notice that the shadows on the wall are gone and now there is a

softer shadow under her chin. Taken at 1/30 second, f/3.5, and ISO 200.

4-7 4-8