Flash photography tips: external flash techniques anyone can understand

jmeyer | Photography Tips | 31/10/2012 02:00am

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Flash photography tips: white bounce cards

Better flashguns have a white bounce card built into the flash head to reflect some light directly onto the subject when the unit is tilted up into a bounce position.

Bounce cards are a great way to add a vibrant catchlight to a subject’s eyes and to fill-in any resulting shadows – for the most effective results, tilt the flash head up to 90°.

Some advanced flashguns feature dual flashtubes instead – firing a weaker burst directly at the subject to fill in shadows and add a catchlight while the main flash is bounced upwards.

If your flashgun doesn’t feature a bounce card or dual flashtube, try using a rubber band to secure a piece of white card around the back of the flash head to reflect some light forward.

Conventional bounce flash won’t always be practical – you might be working outdoors. And if you’re indoors the ceiling/walls might be too distant or the wrong colour.

One solution is to buy a mini flash reflector that clips around the flash tube and bounces the light forwards, softening it with minimum loss of light. Try LumiQuest’s Big Bounce, Pocket Bouncer or Midi Bouncer – available with different coloured metallic inserts.

If your flashgun is a non-tilt model, taking it off-camera will allow you to bounce the flash in any direction. An off-camera flashgun can also be reversed, attached to a studio brolly stand and fired into a flash brolly, thereby turning it into a respectable studio light.

PAGE 1: Overview of external flash units
PAGE 2: Off-camera flash
PAGE 3: Replicate studio lighting with two flashguns
PAGE 4: Bounce flash techniques
PAGE 5: White bounce cards
PAGE 6: Using flash diffusers
PAGE 7: Wireless flash
PAGE 8: External flash photography cheat sheet