Light Diffusion
Friday, April 11th, 2008 
Hey all, Tracy here for another hopefully good 
Photo Phriday. I got this idea from a thread at DST so Im really hoping that since the thread was a few months old, this is still something that you might benifit from. Sorry its a little late. Shelby and I were playing hard all morning
A lot of the time I hate using flash, because of the undesireable shadows and harsh lighting that it can produce. Since I shoot weddings and seniors a lot, I cant stand shadows, but I needed to do something about it. I purchased a Gary Fong Lightsphere for my flash unit, and I tell you it does wonders.
Lightsphere
And here is the difference that it can make (the photos are untouched, taken on auto. You can always change the settings on the flash unit or camera to get even more light)
But Carrying something like that around can be difficult, especially since my main camera is often attached to a bracket.Unless I am working, its rather embarrasing to be shooting with such a set up. At Christmas time I look like a flippin Paparazzi and blinding the heck out of my family. And something like that might not be in your price range as it is. Now in this example you can see (my beautiful daughter Shelby) that direct flash creates a harsh shadow under the chin (ussually there would be one on the wall too, but my camera is on a large bracket, and that ussually stops wall shadows). It also creates an unflattering light. Both in color, and that it tends to show all imperfections.
The second photo shows what happens when I bounce my flash off of the ceiling. It creates a warmer, truer light, but most of the time (there can be exceptions in different lighting situations) it causes shadows under the facial features, that can be rather unflattering.
The third is with my diffuser. It eliminates most shadow behind the subject and it is less harsh under the chin (would have been almost completely gone had I not been shooting her from above, but I was in a hurry The light is warmer, and just an overall more pleasing photo.
Gary Fong offers a solution for pop up flashes called the Puffer.
It produces a great light diffusion that makes flash photos look less harsh. By the way he also has a diffuser that fits on point and shoots if you are interested. My point and shoot somehow avoids bad shadows and harsh light somehow, so I have not purchased one.
Moving on. There are also some DIY options that produce a similiar effect.
1) Creating a “softbox” with wax paper!
2) Using a white film canister (you get go to your local photo lab and ask for one, cause they have a hug bucket of used ones)
Try one of these ideas soon and you may never have to toss another good photo because of distracting dark shadows. DIYphotography.net has tons of Do It Yourself photo ideas that you can really put to good use!!!
Little bonus idea: Bounce your flash off of a side wall close to the subject, to mimic window lighting
