Knowing how to use lighting equipment—even if it’s one small, detachable flash unit—often means that you need to how to soften the light. (Soft light has minimal shadows and hard light has sharp, distinct shadows. A cloudy day is soft light; direct sunlight is hard.)
When you’re shooting portraits with a light you can use a technique called “bouncing”. Instead of pointing the light at your subject you can point the light at a nearby wall and create a large soft light source. This softens the shadows and creates a pleasing natural look. You can, however, fine tune the hardness or softness of the light by how far you place the light away from the wall.
In the top photograph the light is actually pointing at the wall 12 feet away. The light itself is almost next to my little subject, but all of the light that’s hitting her is bouncing off the distant wall. The result is soft and flattering.
In the bottom example, I put the light a foot from the wall that was across the room. The result is a light source that’s much smaller and the resulting shadows are sharp and harsh. Notice the shadow from her nose going across her cheek. You may or may not like it, but you can control it’s intensity by how far you place the light from the wall.
If you’re shooting color photographs the color of the “bounce” wall needs to be considered. A white wall is preferable, but I have color-corrected some bounced light coming off some fairly funky colored walls.
This is yet another simple way to use one light to create different lighting effects.
