Bouncing

Learning goal

By turning the flash head not toward the subject but toward a ceiling or a wall, you will be able to turn a flash a few centimeters wide into a surface of light meters wide. You will explain which of the four qualities of light bouncing changes, and see that the new source is no longer the flash but the lit surface, so the direction of the light is also decided by where that surface is. You will soften the shadow a ceiling bounce leaves in the eye sockets with a bounce card, bring light from the side and the front with an over-the-shoulder bounce, and choose a bounce surface taking into account that the surface's color paints the light and its height weakens it. You will confirm this choice by looking at how the face appears on different skin tones.

The question

A friend has opened a small bookshop in their neighborhood and is holding its first book signing. The shop's ceiling is low and bright white, while its back wall is painted dark green. You need to shoot the author sitting at the table and the readers having their books signed one after another; evening has come, and the light from the shop window is running out. You know from your earlier tries that if you fire the flash straight at the author, their face will flatten and the shelves behind them will go dark. You turn the flash head up, toward the white ceiling, and press the shutter. On the screen the author's face is lit by a soft light, there is a slight shadow under their nose, and the shelves behind can be made out too. The power of the light didn't change; the flash is the same flash.

Why does pointing the flash at the ceiling work? What exactly changes when light goes to the ceiling and comes back, and does this method give the same result with every ceiling?

Context

We named the problems of the flash on top of the camera (Lesson 19.1) by the size, direction and distance of the light. Bouncing is the first and cheapest solution that touches all three at once: it needs no extra tool, only a flash whose head can turn and a suitable surface nearby. Most photographers who use flash at weddings, indoor events and family photos at home produce most of their light this way.

But bouncing isn't magic. The moment you hand the light over to a surface, you also accept all the surface's qualities: its place, size, color and distance. This lesson aims to separate which surface works when and when it doesn't.

Simple explanation

How does the ceiling turn into a new source?

Bounce flash is lighting the subject not by sending the flash's light to it directly, but by hitting a surface with it and using the light reflected from there. When light hits a white, matte ceiling, it scatters in every direction; the place on the ceiling where the flash strikes becomes a bright spot easily more than a meter across. The subject now sees not a flash a few centimeters wide, but this wide spot. Because what separates hard and soft light is the apparent size of the source relative to the subject (Lesson 5.3), when a small point turns into a wide surface, the edges of the shadows soften and the transitions lengthen.

A bounce surface is the ceiling, wall, curtain or white board that the flash's light is aimed at and that becomes the new source for the subject. A good bounce surface is matte, light-colored and neutral. A shiny surface reflects light like a mirror instead of scattering it, and the source stays small again; a dark surface swallows most of the light. That is why looking around and choosing the surface the light will hit before turning the flash is the first step of bouncing.

The lit ceiling does one more job: it lights the rest of the room too. Because the light spreads not only to the subject but also to the surroundings, the background doesn't sink into a dark void as in direct flash; the shelves, the walls, the people behind stay visible.

From which direction does the light come?

In bouncing, the direction of the light is decided not by where the flash is, but by where the lit surface is. A ceiling bounce is turning the flash head up and sending the light back from the ceiling, and the light comes down on the subject from above. If the ceiling is low and the flash points straight up, the light comes almost from overhead; dark shadows form under the eyebrows, in the eye sockets and under the chin. A look appears similar to the effect the noon sun leaves on a face.

You can soften this in two ways. Holding the flash head not straight up but tilted a little forward slides the lit spot toward the subject, and the light comes more from the front. Or you use a bounce card. A bounce card is a small white card attached to the flash head or held by hand, and it sends part of the light going to the ceiling straight forward. This small share fills the eye sockets a little and leaves a lively point of light in the eyes.

An over-the-shoulder bounce, on the other hand, is turning the flash head sideways or backward, over the photographer's shoulder, toward a wall. The lit wall stands in front of and beside the subject, like a large window. The light falls more on one side of the face and less on the other, and the face gains shape as it does in natural light. When the wall is close, light-colored and matte, this method most often gives the face a shape that a ceiling bounce can't.

What do the surface's color and height change?

A bounce surface adds its own color to the light while reflecting it. Light bounced off a green wall paints the face green, light bounced off a wooden ceiling paints it orange, light bounced off a red curtain paints it pink. White balance only partly corrects this painting; the green tone especially, while trying to correct the skin color, can shift the rest of the photo toward purple. If there is no option besides a colored surface, not using it and looking for another surface or a bounce card most often gives a better result.

Color shifts show differently on skin tones. A green bounce can pull the warm brown of dark skin toward a murky, olive-like gray; on light skin it gives a sickly, pale look. The orange of a wooden ceiling can flush light skin while shifting dark skin toward red. After adjusting the white balance, examine the face up close: does the skin recall the color the person has when you see them in daylight?

Height, on the other hand, affects the light's power. If the light travels two meters in direct flash, when it is bounced off the ceiling it first goes up to the ceiling and then comes down to the subject; the path grows to a few meters, and light that weakens with the square of distance (Lesson 18.2) decreases quickly. The surface also swallows part of the light. On a low white ceiling this loss is easily made up; on the high ceiling of a wedding hall or a sports hall, however, the flash's power may not be enough, and the light comes both weak and almost from overhead. In such places a nearby wall or a bounce card is a better surface.

The lengthened path also has a benefit. As the distance between the source and the subjects grows, the difference in distance between the people in front and behind stays small next to this path. While in direct flash there is a two-stop difference between one meter and two meters, in bounced light, if the people are three and four meters from the source, the difference between them stays under one stop. In group photos, the one in front blowing out and the one behind going dark is greatly reduced.

Visual evidence

At the book signing you had shot the first frame with the flash head pointing straight up. Looking up close, you see that the author's eyes are slightly shaded under their eyebrows. You tilt the flash head a little forward and take out the white bounce card; in the new frame the eye sockets have opened, and a small point of light has appeared in each eye.

Then you try shooting the readers in the line in front of the green wall, turning the flash toward that wall. The result is clear at once: a dark-skinned reader's face has turned a murky, olive-like color, while their light-skinned friend beside them looks pale. You turn the flash away from the green wall and point it over your shoulder, at the white shop-window wall behind you. Now the light comes from in front of the readers and a little from the side; both faces return to their own color, and there is a soft shadow transition on the cheeks. The shelves behind stay without sinking into darkness, and there is almost no difference in brightness between the readers lined up front and back.

Common mistakes

Summary

Bouncing turns a palm-sized flash into a light the size of a ceiling or a wall by hitting a matte, light-colored surface with its light; it also lights the background and reduces the difference in distance in a crowd. The direction of the light is now decided by where the lit surface is: the ceiling gives light from overhead, the wall over the shoulder from the front and the side; a bounce card or a forward-tilted flash head softens the eye-socket shadow. The surface's color paints the light and the skin, and its height weakens the light; that is why the surface is chosen before bouncing, and the result is checked on every skin by enlarging the face.

Mini assignment

Do the following tries with a flash whose head can turn, or with a white card held in front of a flash.

1. In a room with a low, white ceiling, shoot the same person first with direct flash, then with the flash head pointing straight up, then with the head tilted a little forward and a bounce card attached; compare the shadow in the eye sockets across the three frames.
2. Shoot the same person by bouncing off a light-colored wall over your shoulder, and compare the shadow transition running from the cheek to the ear with the ceiling bounce.
3. Find a colored wall or a wooden surface at home, and put a portrait bounced off it side by side with one bounced off a white surface; note the shift in the color of the skin.
4. Shoot three people lined up near, in the middle and behind, first with direct flash, then bouncing off the ceiling, and compare the difference in brightness between the one in front and the one behind.

Check yourself

• Looking at a bounce surface, can you say in advance from which direction the light will reach the subject?
• Have you noticed the shift a colored surface leaves on skin and given it up?
• Did you see the point of light the bounce card leaves in the eyes and its effect on the eye sockets?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. Why does turning the flash toward a white ceiling soften the light?

• A) Because it increases the flash's power
• B) Because it warms the color of the light
• C) Because the subject now sees as its source not the small flash, but the wide bright spot on the ceiling
• D) Because it lengthens the shutter speed

2. What problem does light bounced straight up off a low ceiling create most on a face?

• A) Dark shadows in the eye sockets and under the chin
• B) Red-eye
• C) A sharp head shadow behind
• D) The background staying pitch-dark

3. Light bounced off a wall painted green pulls a dark-skinned face toward a murky, olive-like color. Which is the most fitting solution?

• A) Raise saturation
• B) Lower the ISO
• C) Reduce the flash's power
• D) Bounce off another neutral, light-colored surface, or switch to a bounce card

4. In a group photo shot with bounced light, why are the people in front and behind lit more evenly?

• A) Because the ceiling warms the light
• B) Because when the path to the source lengthens, the difference in distance between the people stays small next to this path
• C) Because the flash fires for longer
• D) Because the white balance changes

Answers

1. C — Seen from the subject, the bright spot on the ceiling is many times larger than the flash; that is why the shadow edges soften.
2. A — Light from overhead leaves shadows under the eyebrows and under the chin; a forward-tilted head or a card softens this.
3. D — The surface adds its color to the light; white balance can't fully correct this on skin.
4. B — The difference between paths of three and four meters is much smaller than between one and two meters.

Summary card

• The bounced surface is the new source: wide, soft, it lights the room too.
• The direction of the light is decided by where the lit surface is.
• A ceiling straight up darkens the eye sockets; a forward-tilted head or a bounce card opens them.
• A light wall over the shoulder gives light from the side and the front, like a window.
• A colored surface paints the skin, a high ceiling weakens the light; choose the surface, enlarge the face and check.

Bridge to the next lesson

At the book signing you turned the flash head from the ceiling to the wall, from the wall to the card; the path lengthened, the surface changed, but the frames came out at more or less the right brightness. When a reader in a black sweater entered the frame, however, their face suddenly looked too bright, and when someone in a white shirt came, it went dark. Someone is calculating every time how strongly the light will fire; should you leave this calculation to the camera, or do it yourself? Who should decide the power of the flash? The next lesson compares the automatic method, where the camera meters with a pre-flash and chooses the power itself, with the method where you fix the power by hand.