Neil this is very helpful! I do event photography at a university in Washington DC and always used a diffuser dome and pointing up at the ceiling. Now I understand why the background was always dark... After watching your two videos, I have learned so much and you explained it so easily! Thank you, I will bounce the flash behind me or side walls from here on out!
While listening to your video this morning and earing once again about the end of the curve when talking about the inverse square law, a sample explanation came to my mind to help me visualize how it works. Let’s say the light source is at 1 meter from our subject with the proper power to have a perfect exposure. Test 1. Let’s move our subject from 1 to 2 meters. 1 meters difference to lose 2 stops of light. Test 2. Let’s move our subject from 2 to 4 meters. 2 meters difference to lose 2 stops of light. Test 3. Let’s move our subject from 4 to 8 meters. 4 meters difference to lose 2 stops of light. Test 4. Let’s move our subject from 8 to 16 meters. 8 meters difference to lose 2 stops of light. And we can go on with the same results. As we can see for each test, the difference it takes to lose 2 stops of light is greater as we increase the distance between the light source and our subject. That's the end of the curve you were talking about and now I can visualize why it works.
I discovered this technique by accident and now I'm using it during every event - thanks for explaining how it's working at the tail end of the curve (it baffled me as to why it worked so well).
I've just watched the 2 bouncing flash tutorial late this evening and I can't wait for tomorrow to test this. Thanks a lot for this simple and clearest demo. Bravo !
That's why flash modifiers for on-camera use typically gather dust. I've been experimenting with mini soft boxes and reflectors but nothing is actually large enough to remove the harsh highlights and nasty shadows of direct flash. You're right. Those modifiers like the dome are only used when you don't have any better choice.
Whenever Mr. van Niekerk has a video, no matter now elementary, I pay attention as he always explains things very well and will tell you things that make a significant difference out in the field.
If u can ask a question... I normally take snaps in low light and up my iso.. So still I still up my iso when using the flash or wi it blow out the photo?
I'm a Natural light photographer, i actually don't know how to use flash properly. I've saw so many videos from so many different youtubers, trust me now i understand what is feels like to taught by actual Mentor.. A Ton of thanks for you sir 🙏🤍
Idk why your subscriber is very low. you should be at least in the range of 500k subcriber. the way you explain is very simple and it already stuck in my mind. thank you for the tutorial . I wish you all the best.
There is always an aha moment when I watch your videos. It always amazes me what you can do with one light. Also learning that you lose 2 stopes of light the further you are from the camera was another piece of new learning. Thank you Neil.
The Black Foamy Thing! Learned about this from you years ago, and never looked back! Well, except when checking for the best surface to bounce off of.. LOL Seriously, the inverse square law affect, is the greatest gift to flash photography!! No question about it...
Nice video. Years ago I went to photography school and pretty much shot events the way I was taught but about 10 years ago I came across an article by Neil and it changed my life, well my photography life at least.
Neil, this is a great refresher course on bounced on camera flash. I read your book on bounced flash years ago and it changed my photography immensely! I have been using this technique in so many wedding receptions and events. Coupled with a gel to help match the ambient lighting color…it just works amazingly. Like your example showed, it looks way better than what a simple speedlight should do. I’ve personally found in a lot of cases I’ve liked the way this setup works/looks over setting up multiple strobes around the venue. Thanks again for the wonderful knowledge and advice!
I'm just learning on camera flash and your video was super valuable! I'm starting to "get it" better (I'm VERY new to it) and the more I can absorb simple explanations the more I can retain!!! Thanks for this!!
Thanks so much Neil for the bit of science!! I used this technique several years ago, at my daughter's wedding, after reading your book. I got great results but never really appreciated why. Love the black foamy thing.
Great tutorial ! It means not only that light falls off very quickly but also at 5 meters you get nearly as much flash light as at 4 meter so groups of people can be evenly lit. Offcourse you need a lot more flash power than for instance when your subject is only 2 meters from the camera
Wow! So over and over again .. I had tried to comprehend .. words like 'fall off', 'bounce' and I thought I understood .. but watching this made SO much sense .. being in that 'low end' and setting the flash - using bounce .. and seeing how easy it is to have it all lit .. SUPER. I don't know what the "Black Foamy" thing is .. but I worry about blinding the people behind me .. what is that?
Jae -- the "Black Foamie Thing" is a piece of black foam that I use to flag my flash, and control the light spill. It also helps in not hitting the people behind me in the face with direct flash. neilvn.com/tangents/about/black-foamie-thing/
I used to use a Metz 45 which was on a bracket on the side of the camera which gave a pretty good result. Having the flash in that position was better than over the lens. Good video.
That is sooo helpful and easy to understand. It will take some work to put it into practice, but I feel like I just learned something that is super meaningful.
Excellent. I'd read about this and experienced the benefits of bouncing light off a wall, but I didn't really understand how/why it worked the way it did. Thanks.
Awesome explanation, thank you :-) Now it even makes more sense to me why some speedlites are so powerful. Pointing them straight on with high power sounded weird, but bouncing it the power becomes useful.
I bounce my flash all the time when I am photographing events indoors. But, if I hadn't been stubborn enough to try and figure out a few problems with flash that I had early on, I would not be bouncing my flash because I would not have found Neil. Thank you.
Thanks for the explanation. Really easy to understand and for real I learned something with it. I am impatient to try this full-power back-pointing flash bounce.
Keep in mind it might very well not be full power. The actual power setting will depend on the combination of your ISO and aperture, and the size of the room.
It took me awhile but I eventually understood! Get the source of light further away so that by the time the light reaches your subject it will be in that flat area that will extend across the background, so lighting is more even. Makes sense! I just wonder if my flash is strong enough to light up whole rooms like that! I do need to play with higher ISO's, I notice you use higher ISO's when I'd think ppl would use a flash to get the ISO DOWN! So I'm looking onto that now and experimenting. You're the best teacher of flash photography I've come across! Edit: Oh, I think I realized it's because you want to shoot at higher Aperture for greater depth of field and the flash isn't strong enough to hit 100 ISO?
With flash, I do use it to bring the ISO down to usable levels when I work in very low light ... but I also want good light on my subject. And with that. I do often chase the ISO higher so that my bounce flash can have impact and I can get quality light on my subject. It's all in the balance.
Thanks for this Neil, you mentioned using a 'black foamy thing' to prevent flash light from hitting people with light, in the face @ 11.45; What is this black foamy thing? Thanks again for explaining this and showing examples
Excellent explanation of the wonderful world of fractions (math, gasp ;-) and I learned one more interesting practical tidbit, thanks Neil! Your channel deserves much more attention than it gets.
Thank you for a characteristically clear and helpful tutorial! In the first example (at around 11:15), curious if you used auto ISO or set ISO manually.
