The image above was an exercise on how to balance ambient light with a single on board flash set to manual control. For the record, I prefer shooting off camera flash and normally crosslighting my subject. The situation presented itself in a sitting room about 15ft wide x 9ft high x 12 ft deep. To the left of the couch was a single tungsten lit lamp, too low for handheld exposure. I had an onboard flash which when shot dead on just wasn't doing the atmosphere justice. I tried turning the flash head behind me to bounce of the wall but that gave me a big wash of light with no shadows, just flat. I then turned the flash head to my right where the wall met the ceiling (45 degrees) and that gave me a soft directional light with soft shadows. The next step was to balance the exposure so that the lamp still registered with a glow plus the directional flash coming from 45 degrees up and right. After working on the image in photoshop, there was something that just felt wrong. The motivation from the light wasn't right. I should've bounced the flash 45 degress up and LEFT. This way, the shadows would have been cast on the camera right side of the subject mimicking light cast from the lamp. Posting this image will remind me to constantly think about motivation of the light and not just merely bouncing light. Lessons learned.
