The availability of light can be greatly reduced whenever you’re working indoors. This is why many wedding and event photographers work with on-camera flash setups and speedlights. These are solid light sources and can yield great results when used properly. But because a flash is still small, the light it produces is harsh, resulting in unflattering results. In today’s video, we have professional wedding and portrait photographer Vanessa Joy with Adorama TV who shares some useful techniques that you can use for indoor flash photography:
If you’re a beginner photographer, you may be tempted to point the flash directly towards the subject. That makes sense, right? But it has some negative repercussions. You get unflattering light, harsh shadows and specular highlights on the subject’s face. So, as much as possible, avoid using a flash by pointing it directly towards the subject.
As Joy shares in the video, a better way to use flash indoors is to place your subject close to a white wall and bounce the light off that wall and onto the subject. You’ll need to angle your flash to ensure that the light is being reflected properly, which may take trial and error to set up. With this method, the wall will act as the light source, which is much bigger and more diffused than the tiny flash. This makes the light softer, so the shadows also appear softer, and the subject is more uniformly lit. Keep in mind that this method can result in unwanted color-casting on your subject—however, you can easily take care of this in post. In case you don’t have easy access to a wall, Joy shares how you can use a reflector to get the job done.
Keep these tips in mind for your next indoor flash photography session. You’ll be surprised by how much better your images will come out.
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