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

[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.