| Using a home-made bounce card
for your Canon EOS Speedlite. When it comes to using your EOS Speedlite to provide daylight-balanced illumination to your subject indoors, it is always good to go for a softer lighting approach rather than the harsh type associated with direct flash photography. Even still-life, product and portrait photography shot in studio lighting are lit with the softer approach. With conventional hotshoe flash photography, the only way to obtain a softer lighting effect is to use bounced flash - by reflecting the light from the flash head towards the ceiling or wall. The ceiling or wall must be neutral in color; otherwise, the subject's overall appearance will reflect the color cast from where the flash light is being bounced. While bounced flash gives a softer lighting effect to the subject, there are also several disadvantages: the flash uses up more power as the light has to travel a longer distance before reaching the subject; and usually produces darker shadows under the eyes, chins and necks for people photography, whether in portraiture or group photos. When the Canon Speedlite 540EZ was introduced as the companion for the EOS-1N/1N RS, it came equipped with a built-in wide panel for 18mm coverage and also doubled as a bounce card. The card is to facilitate bounced flash photography and add a catchlight to the subject's eyes. It also reduces the length the flash illumination needs to travel in bounced lighting in order to reach the subject, thus conserving battery power and faster recycling time for the Speedlite unit. The Speedlite 550EX also has a wide panel built-in: a 17mm version.
The built-in wide panels of both the Speedlite 540EZ and 550EX are more useful in providing direct flash coverage with EF lenses having focal lengths wider than 24mm (down to 17 and 18mm) but not sufficient enough for most bounced flash photography when they are used as bounce cards. Well, there are plenty of independent makers of add-on accessories like soft box attachments to the front of the Speedlites for a softer, direct flash shooting or larger bounced cards that disperse the light better than the built-in wide-panels found on both the 540EZ and 550EX, as well as other camera and independent flash manufacturers' models. And there is also an inexpensive way to use a larger bounce card for your Canon EOS Speedlites: make your own. << Back to Main . 1 . 2 . 3 . |
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