Eos Discovery Roundup 2/3 – On Camera Flash
I guess I’m a bit known for my off-camera flash work, but it’s not always possible to do this. Sometimes you may have to get down-and-dirty with a flash ON your camera. But that’s not an excuse for making horrible pictures. Because with some tricks you can get pretty good shots with on-camera flash. Maybe not as good as when you have complete control over the placement of the light, but at least you won’t get killed by your subject for making him/her look like the mutant star of a bad horror movie.
To make my point I started out with the camera set to PROGRAM-mode. The Japanese engineers inside my camera and flash gave me a shutterspeed of 1/60th at f/2.8 (iso 100) and managed to have the flash throw just the right amount of light at Erika for a correctly exposed yet not very flattering picture of Erika.
The background goes almost completely dark and there’s no separation between the background and Erika’s hair. One of the first thing I do when I’m forced to work with direct on-camera flash is to look for backgrounds with some light. The Canon counter was a perfect fit. So I repositioned the camera slightly to get some light behind Erika.
I think it becomes clear that a bit of light in the background gives the picture some depth. To get even more light behind her, I switched to MANUAL-mode and made sure I got some more available light in by increasing the iso to 400. You can also let more light in by adjusting aperture and shutter speed. You can even go pretty low on your shutterspeeds because the flash will freeze the subject, not the shutter. In most cases, I can go without any problems to 1/8th or lower.
But there’s still that harsh look of on-axis flash. The flash isn’t exactly on the lens axis, so whenever possible I’d rather use wider lenses because when your camera is closer to the subject the flash is relatively speaking further away from the lens axis. But things become really interesting when you can get your light source even further away for the lens. You can actually turn your flash in an off-camera light without removing it from the camera. If the ceiling is not to high and not to colorful, you can easily point your flash to it and spread the light over a large distance. This will give you softer, more even light but the light still comes from above, often casting ugly shadows under the eyes. Instead I rather look for vertical structures to bounce on: a wall, a door or … someone in the audience who happens to wear a white shirt/sweater. I chose a ‘volunteer’ and put him/her to my left to become my light source. I just pointed the flash so it would bounce off of the white clothes onto Erika.
After two sessions I started picking models out of the audience instead of shooting Erika all the time. Now I wouldn’t mind shooting Erika for the rest of my carreer but I wanted to show that it also works on non-models. Thanks to all those who helped me out on stage.
Here’s one more: P-mode – 1/60 – f/2.8 – iso 100 – direct flash
M-mode – 1/40 – f/2.8 – iso 400 – direct flash
M-mode – 1/40 – f/2.8 – iso 400 – Belgian Manbounce
I also had the chance to shoot Karen Devriese, a photographer I admire and who’s work I’ve been following for a few years … without realising it was her. We’ve exchanged e-mails but never met in person. I’ve just picked the good looking woman in the front to be my subject and it was only after the mini shoot that Erika whispered in my ear that it was funny that I choose Karen 
P-mode – 1/60 – f/2.8 – iso 100 – direct flash
M-mode – 1/60 – f/2.8 – iso 400 – direct flash
M-mode – 1/60 – f/2.8 – iso 400 – Belgian Manbounce
Now go out and start flashing 
Another great blog post of you – simple but very useful… well done, Bert!
I heard/read before that you can use bystanders to bounce light off of, but I didn’t expect it to be so effective.
BTW: It would be interesting to know how the distance ratio was – i.e. flash “belgian manbounce” and “belgian manbounce” model.
Oops… apparently my attempts to use “arrows” (with angular brackets) in my comment didn’t really make it to the actual comment text. Of course I meant to say: “…flash TO belgian manbounce” and “belgian manbounce TO model” in the last sentence.
I saw the shoot with Karin and it was very interesting as I have only recently bought my flash.
)
I’m convinced that it will enable me to make some great shots, but I also realise it will take getting used to. Main reason why I didn’t take the flash with me on holiday.
I’m going out flashing this weekend (and avoid the police
@Manuel: The manbounce was about 1,5 meters away from me and Erika. Kind of like a triangle with 3 even sides. I actually use this technique pretty often on weddings and business events (lots of white shirts there).
@Mike: The police flashes all the time (but their pictures are expensive). Good luck
Wow Bert! I always bounce flash wherever I can, if bouncing off the roof I often end up being further back to get better lighting, but walls work well as you say.
I never though of bouncing off a person though, and am impressed how well it works
The sets of photos in this post really show how simply you can improve flash photography – a great post
Ha ha ha – love the belgian man bounce comment!
Also good point about the shutter speed – I totally forgot that I could use such a low number. Thanks for the reminder!
I always read your posts through Rss feed, and I often find myself smiling while I read.
Also this is one of my favourite posts because you demostrate how to master the light even with imposed restrictions like on camera flash or compromises to choose from.
Once more, thanks for sharing.
@Anton: My motto is “everything is photo gear
”
@John: it’s just another incarnation of the good old drag-the-shutter-trick
@marco: Creativity is often born out of restrictions. I’m planning a longer post about that soon.
My model (16 months) had a double ear infection, so short attention spans. But your tips did the trick… nicer and softer light with off the wall bouncing.
Hope your model will be better soon Mike
Great post. The term “Belgian Manbounce” made me laugh.
Dude, that is so cool. Very simple way to combine knowledge I already had. I’m going to use this more often now.
Cool story about Karen
Thanks for this.
Great site as always! This is a rad tutorial.
I was curious if for this specific example if you were using TTL or manual flash settings.
You do a wonderful job explaining your camera settings; but I was wondering about the flash.
Thanks!!!!
@Mike: ear infections are terrible. I had more than my fair share when I was a kid
@Steven: manual
@all: thanks