Why you should use bounce flash

[fivemack]

Which of these loaves looks more appetising?

My apologies to those of my readers for whom both loaves look irritatingly toxic.

Err, yes, I went out this morning and bought the camera I'd been contemplating for months.

Comments

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

#2

[atreic.livejournal.com]

The second one. Which loaf is supposed to look more appitising?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I ♥ bounce flash.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

...do you have any kind of remote control capability for that flash gun? I've been experimenting with the much wider range of lighting possibilities that RC gives with mine lately, though nothing I'm yet inclined to publish l-)

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have remote-control capability, though the instructions for enabling it are on the staggeringly baroque side (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/ittlslave.htm ; the bit about 'select controller channel 3' is particularly non-obvious. I took a couple of shots to check that it worked - flash from the side onto fluffy things gives a nice Glowing Bunny Slippers of Righteousness effect - but I don't have any kind of creative ideas of what to do with it. I can assume the classic wedding-photographer flashgun-in-left-hand pose, but I'm not quite sure what that's aiming to achieve for my subject.

Canon is Canon and Nikon is Nikon and never the twain shall meet, I suppose, otherwise we could meet up and see what more can be done with 2N flashes.

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

Loaf B.

[ceemage.livejournal.com]

I was about to say "They're both exactly the same, except the second one is better lit." But, erm, that was the point you were trying to make, I guess. {facepalm}

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Bouncing the flash does two useful things and one unfortunate thing (the unfortunate thing is it wastes some power, and no flash is actually powerful enough). It makes the light softer, of course; that's what it's famous for.

It also moves the apparent light source away from the camera. In addition to ceilings, consider light neutral-toned walls as possible bounce surfaces. Lots of people seem to overlook this second use of bouncing, just pointing the flash up and not thinking about it.

In the second bread photo, the benefit is mostly from the light not coming from the camera position; by having the light come at an angle from above, the surface texture shows up a lot more clearly, and you're not getting those little specular reflections off the surface, either.

However, your example #1 looks better than most direct-flash shots I've done. I seem to have a curse on my preventing me from getting even semi-decent direct flash shots to work out.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

By a slight margin, the latter image.

[kaberett.livejournal.com]

Er, the former to me, I'm afraid - the latter looks like it has the texture of a crumpet, which is fine in crumpets but less good in bread :p Apparently I am odd, however...

(Hello! Prodding atreic's flist accidentally, seems as good an excuse as any to add you, feel free to ignore me/angsty postings/etc :)

[darcydodo]

Well, to me the first one looks like nice shiny sourdough, and the second one looks rather dry, so I'd say the first. I realize this is probably not the correct answer.

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

The first one... could be really tasty, or it could be a disaster. The second one, well, it's just bread.