Saturday, September 11, 2010

cheap flash solution

so, generally speaking, the built-in flashes for cameras are regarded as shitty. they're weak and unflattering, and produces ugly harsh shadows. but sometimes, there's no choice but to use them - and the internet has taught me a way that works amazingly well that it totally made my day, in a nerdgasmtastic way. basically, you take a sheet of aluminum foil (or a small mirror, which'd be even better - more light is preserved) and place it infront of the popup flash, angled so that the light'll bounce onto your subject. it isn't perfect - it only works if you're pretty close to your subject, and if the ceiling is relatively low, and if you're not using too wide a lens. but when it does work, it's pretty  great, here's it in action:

without flash


direct flash (the settings are a bit exaggerated; normally you wouldn't get a whiteout, but even so, it still wouldn't be pretty)


flash bounced off of ceiling



the only downside (besides the low power output of the flash/associated limitations), is that your camera will look seriously ghetto:


ballin'.

No comments:

Post a Comment