Shooting with speedlight flash - technique

DDCSD wrote in post #6287932
That is actually because the glasses are tipped down and not "looking at" the camera. If they were looking towards the camera, you'd get the reflection.

Not from the angle I bounced it at. To my left and slightly behind me. The only light hitting the glasses were from the bounced light and the angle of the incidence dictates the angle of reflectance. His glasses were not that strong so the lenses were fairly flat... and the reflected light was probably somewhere at about 1 to 2 feet to my right. I use the same exact bounce direction for these company mug-shots that I did today. (which is why I had the camera at work today). The pictures were needed for our corperate exchange server and sharepoint profiles. You can see the direction the light is hitting the glasses from by the speculars at the top camera left of the glasses frames. Same angle applied to the exit of the reflections... the reflections go to the camera's right.

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DDCSD wrote in post #6288050
The 430 is a great flash. It will likely do anything you need a single flash to do for quite a while. The power difference between the 580 and the 430 is only one stop, so you can make up for the power shortage by opening up your aperture or upping your ISO.

For the examples in your other post, with cars, you may want to look into multiple light set-ups. It can be tough to properly light a car with only one flash. Your best bet would be to start a new thread detailing your situation. You'll get a bunch of helpful suggestions.

Yup and in my examples... my 580 flash was at 1/8 power on manual... so a 430 would have been able to do the shots as well.

mattograph wrote in post #6287983
I was referring more to diffuse reflection from throwing all of that light into the subject. For instance, you can catch the faint outline of some white "panel" in the side of the right lens. Additionally light hitting that from the front may produce hotter reflections and distracting elements.

Of course, it might not do squat. Just thought I would take a moment to validate all that time I spent reading light: science and magic!

Actually that reflection of a panel you're seeing is a 19" LCD that he was working at.

Apone wrote in post #6281086
This actually works. I was shooting outside (kids playing soccer) under trees on a sunny day so lots of mixed shadow and sun. I took off the omnibounce and fired direct, was not happy with the result, then for the hell of it put the Stofen back on and left it angled up. It was not so much bouncing off of anything but rather throwing a glow to take out the shadows I was getting. Does not seem like it would do anything but it does. The stofen lights up like a globe light instead of bouncing it from a ceiling that of course does not exist outside.

Your direct flash was probably too much power, which is why you didn't like it. A stofen outdoors with nothing to bounce off eats batteries and throws light everywhere -- which is not hitting your subject. Light doesn't bend, so you aren't going to get softer light with a stofen outdoors, that's a fact.