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Bounce Flash and Extreme Bounce Flash Assignment

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Assignment 1:

  • Shoot two compelling bounce flash photos and two compelling extreme bounce flash photos.
  • Four different photos.
  • Blog your photos with labels for the type of bounce (extreme or normal). Write complete captions.
  • Write 250 words about your experience. Include diagram or photos of your set.

Take studio quality light with you wherever you go!

Bounce Flash and Extreme Bounce Flash

  • Set your camera to manual exposure.
  • Set your aperture wide open. The wider the better f/2.8 or faster is best. Check a fast lens out from the department of journalism if needed.
  • Set your strobe to 1/2 power or 1/4 power. If the wall or ceiling is farther than 30 feet away go to full power.
  • Shoot a test shot and then change your ISO to get a good exposure.
  • Experiment with the power of the flash, and the ISO to get good results
  • Set your shutter speed to get the ambient light you desire – 1/4 of a second is a good starting place if the background is dark.
  • Do not set your shutter speed over 1/200th sec.
  • Using a Godox strobe, zoom your flash to 200mm.
  • Swivel your flash fully to the left or right for wall bounce.
  • Swivel your flash at a 45Ëš angle up and slightly behind you for ceiling bounce.
  • Experiment with the direction of the flash considering where your subject is looking. Think to yourself, “where is the best place for the light to come from?”  That’s where you point your flash.
  • Do not allow any of the direct flash to be seen by your subject. Make sure the strobe does not hit your subject directly. If it does, you must re-shoot. Zoom in to see the image on the back of your camera to check your results.
  • With extreme bounce flash you are finding a wall or ceiling that is at least 25 to 50 feet away. Increase the power if your strobe to 1/1 and increase your ISO to 3200 or even 6400. See photos that show extreme bounce flash below. You can bring amazing studio like light to your situations you never thought possible.

Shoot lots. Experiment lots and lots.

Shoot four compelling photos that are all totally different, two using bounce flash and two using extreme bounce flash.  Go beyond showing that you know the technique. Show character. Show action. Show mood.

 

In-class Bounce Flash and Extreme Bounce Flash Assignment by Hailey Urbane.

 

First attempt at A1 from Marie Underwood. 

Second attempt at A1 by Marie Underwood.

 

More examples below:

No flash. Ugly fluorescent light.
No flash. Poor, flat, fluorescent light.

 

Bounce flash off wall to left.
Bounce flash off the wall to left. Notice how soft, crisp and directional the light is?

Bounce flash off of a 30 foot tall ceiling! F2.8, 1/2 power, ISO 1600.

 

Bounce flash off of a 30 foot tall ceiling! F2.8, 1/2 power, ISO 1600.

 

Bounce flash off wall to right. Notice how soft, and directional the light is?


Class demonstration of where to aim your flash when bouncing.
Libby March, left, participates in a hands-on class exercise of where to aim your flash when bouncing. We will be doing this very shortly.


Taylor. No flash. Natural light.
Taylor. No flash. Natural light. Not very flattering.


Taylor. Bounce flash off wall 15 feet away. 1/200th f5.6 ISO 800
Taylor Ballek. Bounce flash off wall 15 feet away. 1/200th f5.6 ISO 800


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Mike 1/4 power. ISO 400, F 2.8, 1/160, 35mm lens


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Kaytie Boomer (staff photographer at The Bay City Times) 1/4 power, ISO 400 F2.8, 1/160. 200mm lens

 

Lens (mm): 70 ISO: 200 Aperture: 2.8 Shutter: 1/80 sec. Flash set to 1/2 power. Strobe zoom set to 200mm. Beautiful bounce flash bounced off the ceiling and wall to the left. Nice because it is directional and diffused.

No flash. Lens (mm): 70 ISO: 200 Aperture: 2.8 Shutter: 1/80 – Same settings. Nothing shows up because without the flash the image is incredibly underexposed.

Lens (mm): 70 ISO: 200 Aperture: 2.8 Shutter: .8 second. No Flash. Lowered shutter speed to get the correct exposure. Shutter too slow to avoid camera shake. Light is terrible.

Lens: 70 ISO: 200 Aperture: 2.8 Shutter: 1/500th, Flash set to 1/2 power. Strobe zoom set to 200mm. 1/500 Shutter is too fast for using a strobe. Sync speed must be set around a 200th at the highest depending on the camera. There was never a point where the shutter was completely open. Each camera has its own sync speed. Check your owners manual for yours.

No Flash with low shutter speed….

 


…compared with Beautiful bounce flash.

Extreme Bounce Flash

Without bounce flash
Without bounce flash. Way too much noise. Unusable.

 

ISO 3200, 1/60th f2.8 Full Power flash bounced about 100 feet.
ISO 3200, 1/60th f2.8 Full Power flash bounced about 100 feet (to and from the wall). Jeff Smith (staff photographer at UofM) and Charlotte Bodak (staff photographer at Ford Motor Company)

 

Bounce flash diagram
Extreme bounce flash diagram

 

Baylen. 1/200th f2.8 ISO 3200. Light bounced about 50 feet away off IET Building.
Baylen Brown. 1/200th f2.8 ISO 3200. Light bounced about 50 feet away off IET Building.

 

Sarah. 1/2 second f3.2 ISO 800. Jiggled camera during exposure. Light bounced about 40 feet away off IET Building.
Sarah White. 1/2 second f2.8 ISO 800. Jiggled camera during exposure. Light bounced about 40 feet away off IET Building. The slow shutter speed lightened up the dark background.

 

kcm_0805
Bounce flash is the bomb! ISO 1600, F2.8, 1/60

 

kcm_0831
A clear difference without bounce flash. Unuseable.

 

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ISO 1600, 1/13, F2.8 .Strobe bounce at full power off the IET building. Notice the slow shutter speed brought up the background exposure? With a faster shutter speed the background would have been quite dark.

 

Bounced off of high wall about 100 feet in total distance. Flash, full power. Lens (mm): 17. ISO: 3200. Aperture: 2.8. Shutter: 1/8.

 

Another Resource for Extreme Bounce Flash

This is why we learn how to use a strobe properly…

Bad Direct Flash

 

Need handheld off camera flash.

 

Oh my…

 

Worse light possible. What animal has the characteristics of their eyes being dark? Use Fill flash.

 

Ugg

Please stop making me look at these horrible photos!!!

Fill Flash

Reduce the power of your strobe by at least one stop. We don’t want to blast our subject. Just fill in the shadows with a kiss of light.

Fill Flash

 

Fill Flash

 

Huge difference with fill flash.

 

No Fill Flash

 

Fill Flash. Pretty cool idea here. Point the flash at the subject, zoom your strobe all the way in, and shoot. Voila.

 

Fill Flash. Underexpose flash by a full stop.

 

Fill FLash

 

Great for sunsets

 

Direct flash with slow shutter speed. 1/4th of a second at f2.8.

 

No flash

 

Fill Flash

 

No flash

 

Flash Fill

 

Off camera with a handheld strobe using a dedicated cord.

Just like fill flash except  hold the flash off camera with the use of a dedicated cord.

Use a wide angle lens. I’d say at least the equivalent of a 24-35mm lens or wider. Get close to your subject.

Handheld flash off camera using a cord.

 

Handheld flash off camera using a cord.

 

Handheld flash off camera using a cord.

 

Handheld flash off camera using a cord.

 

Handheld flash off camera using a cord. Notice the sunlight as a backlight?

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