In these video tutorials by Tony and Chelsea Northup and Lynda.com, I learnt a lot more about the flash gun and the ability of one single flash gun to create many different types of lighting simply by bouncing light off of walls, ceilings, etc. If there’s one thing I can say I know about using a flash gun in photography, it is that direct flash is almost never a good idea. Direct flash produces a harsh reflective light onto the subject, an unpleasant catch light in the eyes(if the subject has any), and many unattractive specs of highlights across the surface of the subject. Tony clearly shows us the difference by first shooting with his built-in camera flash, then with a flashgun pointing directly at his subjects face, then pointing the flash directly upwards to bounce light off the ceiling, showing a massive improvement in the image when the light bounced instead of being direct.
With the flash gun being a very small light source, which produces harsh highlights on the subject, pointing the flash toward the ceiling allows us to turn the ceiling into a large light source which creates a much more diffused and pleasant lighting. The same applies to walls. Bouncing light off walls on different sides can produces different styles such as broad or narrow lighting which Tony demonstrates in his video.
Here are my test shots using the flash gun:-
I like this last shot very much, but my favorite for this shoot is still the image at the very top, shot with the flash pointing directly upwards. It produced a very soft and even lighting entire subject without any harsh shadows or highlights. It had a very natural and pleasant look.
For the shots in which I bounced the flash off the right wall, I think the wall was too close to my subject and this produced a very harsh light. I should have moved him further away from the wall, or at least excluded the bright highlighted wall from the frame.
zenkhyeooi 