Tags
18-55mm, black/white, bounce card, boy, canon, catch lights, DIY, dSLR, eyelashes, eyes, lighting, manual, photography, pop-up flash, portrait, practice, SOOC, XSi
I get very tired of the pop-up flash on my camera and have tried just about every DIY suggestion out there for diffusing it. Over the weekend I decided to try a new trick: the business card bouncer.
I cannot tell you the joy that exploded in my heart after seeing the results of this little trick!!!
No more hot spots on the forehead, nose tip and chin.*
No more shadows – diffused or otherwise – on the wall behind my subject.*
No more weird color casts and gradients from the flash hitting my subject directly.*
No more pin lights from the flash dead center in my subject’s pupils.*
*No more provided I have a white wall nearby from which to bounce the light; minor detail. 😉
My beautiful son allowed me to practice using the card by taking photographs of him, of which I hardly have any, let me assure you (yea, right!). I was absolutely thrilled with the results, and the catch lights that resulted.
The photo above was taken with the bounced flash. No processing was done other than to convert it to black/white with a red filter. I just love it.
Aimee Wigfall Photography 
Aimee –
The more important question is why is your flash going off in the first place? It shouldn’t pop-up if you are using the manual setting.
Hi Meghan, thanks for your question. 🙂
I hear where you’re coming from, and, generally, I do prefer not to use the flash. However, in this situation, I chose to use the flash. We were indoors, using the 18-55mm, and without the flash the shutter speed would be too slow to get the sharp focus I wanted, unless I bumped up the ISO beyond where I prefer it (I generally try to keep it at 400 or below).
Plus, this was a bit of an experiment with the bounce card. There are often times when I have no choice but to use the flash. Do you not you use it at all when you’re inside?
Hi Aimee,
Sorry, I misunderstood the beginning of your post – when you said you were tired of the pop-up flash, I thought you meant you were tired of it popping up, but I think you meant you were tired of the look you were achieving (right?). 🙂
The bounce card sounds like an innovative way to achieve the look you want (and got!). 🙂
Meghan
Yep! You got it! Tired of the look I was getting with the flash. The film canister diffuser works pretty well, but you still get the frontal flash look (=flat lighting) with a few hot spots (though much less than without the diffuser).
The bounce card gives a completely different result, similar to what you’d get w/ an external flash since the light is being reflected from the side. You can still see slight pin lights in his eyes, but the catch lights from the wall (I think) help minimize that.
If you ever use a flash, I’d recommend giving it a try! It’s kinda cool to compare the difference. 🙂