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Useful Photography Tip

Useful Photography Tip #17: Why Beginners Think About Flash All Wrong

Chris Gampat
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04/17/2012
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat Kristen Bernardo BHInsights Bounce Flash Single Flash Unit (2 of 3)

More experienced users will know that people just dipping their toes into the world of flashes and strobism often try to directly point their flash at a subject and hope for the best. That’s not always the best way to think about it. Direct flash will deliver harsh shadows on a subject, and if you’re going for that Terry Richardson type of look, then go ahead and fire away.

However, speedlites, speedlights and other hot shoe flashes are meant to be used differently. Keep this very quick list of tips in mind:

– Think of the walls and areas around you as sources of light

– Imagine that all of the light in the area has been shut off

– Now think to yourself, if you wanted to light your subject, where would you place the light and how would it fall?

– In the photo above, I aimed my strobe at a wall both above and to the right of me. That illuminated the wall and turned it into a giant light source. Said light then fell on the subject in the photo above and that is how I was able to shoot the photo.

– Additionally, you may want to shoot at a lower ISO number and perhaps raise your shutter speed to kill the ambient light. Slower shutter speeds and higher ISOs should be used after some practice and once you feel comfortable with mastering how a bounced flash affects your images.

The light in the image above is hitting the sloped ceiling and therefore delivers the image below.

Notice the shadows on the other side of Katie? That is because there is no other light source illuminating her on that side. Once again, think of the walls as your light sources and the flash as the way that you’re going to illuminate them.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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