MacGyver Photography Tips: DIY rig allows for bounced flash even when there's no ceiling to aim it.

One of the easier ways to improve your flash photography is to bounce it off the ceiling or a wall.

As long as the surface is white, or close to white as possible, it will soften the light and give a more pleasing appearance to the subject.

There are just a couple problems with it, though.

First, just bouncing off the ceiling by itself will cause shadows around the eyes and under the nose. That's because the light is only coming from above. Years ago, I got around that problem with a double-headed flash, where a smaller flash filled in the shadow areas, creating a great even light.

Second, you need a ceiling, or at least one that's not too far away. Trying to bounce a flash off the ceiling of a Gothic cathedral or indoor stadium is not going to work as well as a standard-height ceiling.

The solution to the problem is to use a bounce card that gives the flash something to bounce off, both filling in the shadows and allowing for a softer light in places where a ceiling bounce is clearly not practical.

Most speedlights today are equipped to a small plastic card you can slide out that reflects some light forward while the main flash bounces off the ceiling, balancing the light. But that does not quite address the problem if you're shooting outdoors.

There's a variety of flash modifiers out there that will allow you to bounce the flash forward, creating a softer light than a direct flash while avoiding the shadows from just an overhead lighting.

The one I use is one I found on Pieroway.com. Unfortunately, the site has since been suspended, but fortunately it is still available on Archive.org's Wayback Machine. The site has PDFs that you can print out with the pattern for the bounce card, with the option to print one with a plain black back or one with the logos for Canon, Nikon or Sony.

One of the things I like with this design is that it goes over the face of the flash, giving the light something to bounce off of. Other cards allow the flash to go straight out to the ceiling, which is fine if you have a ceiling nearby.

While the site recommends printing it on card stock and making the necessary folds, I found that using two sheets of craft foam — one black and one white — works better, as it's more durable, the black layer prevents light spillage and it can be folded if you score the fold lines with an X-Acto knife.

The site recommends attaching it with a rubber band, which I did when I used a cardstock version as a proof of concept. For the final, I used Velcro fasteners to attach to the flash unit.

Here's what it looks like on my flash:

But how does it work?

Here's a photo with the flash directly on the subject, in this case a plush Opus from "Bloom County." (The following pictures only have lens corrections, color balance and sharpening applied.)