Bounced-flash portrait

I was a guest at a wedding in Rathsallagh House on Friday and naturally brought my camera with me.  Although I had most of my photography kit in the boot of the car, for almost the entire day I used just one lens and, later in the day, one flash.  And although the flash stayed on the camera (no off-camera lighting setups this time) I experimented with using it as an effective off-camera light source, and was more than happy with the results.

Of course any portrait requires some willing models and on Friday I was lucky enough that Aoife and Orlaith were willing to endure my experimenting with bounced flash between dinner courses.

To get an idea how I bounced the flash, and why it worked well, it’s useful to see the room in which we were having dinner.  You can see the section in which the photo was taken below and what’s significant for the purposes of this discussion is the height of the ceiling and the colour of the walls.

That ceiling is quite low as you can see (and painted white) and the walls are wood-panelled, with a warm orange/brown colour. An important consideration was the position of those walls and ceiling relative to where I was positioned.  All of those factors would dictate where and how I would bounce my flash to turn it from an on-camera light source into an off-camera one.

I’ve marked with three arrows where I (the arrow on the left), Aoife and Orlaith (the two arrows on the right) were sitting.   I’ve also circled the area of the room I used to bounce my flash.  By pointing the flash at this corner of the room where the ceiling and two walls met, I was able to soften the harsh light from my flash, and because this was slightly behind me, I could ensure that no light fell on Aoife or Orlaith direct from the flash.

They were lit entirely by two soft light sources – one being the bounced light from my flash coming back from the corner, the other being the ambient light already in the room, though at my exposure of 1/60s, f/5.6, ISO 400, that was underexposed and so became the fill light.

I used TTL for the flash so let it set it’s own power.  I imagine it was probably somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 power.

Bouncing the flash like that gave me light that looks like it’s coming from a softbox, and the colour of the wood adds some warmth to the light which is very flattering.

I’d love to take credit also for the rim/hairlight from the setting sun outside the window, but truth be told that was a total coincidence – at the instant I took the photograph someone at the next table moved the curtains a sliver to look out.  It’s a nice bonus though.

I used this technique on and off during the evening for a few more portraits and for some first dance shots, and was happy with the results.  For a situation where setting up off camera flash isn’t appropriate, or where you want quick and easy soft light to enhance some existing light that is just a little flat or not bright enough, it’s certainly a good technique to use, especially if the layout and size of the room you are in is suited to it.