In any situation time is never on your side.  Be it commercial, PR, landscape, wedding or even family portrait photography, time is always a key factor and dictates how when and where we plan to take a shot.  That is why on-camera flash is so appealing and in most cases, photographers opt for direct flash in many of these scenarios.  It’s very difficult to lug around kit for off-camera scenarios or indeed move the lights from one location to the next.

There is another alternative though provided that you have the patience and don’t mind working with your camera in manual exposure mode.  I found a New Jersey based photographer Neil van Niekerk using this method and decided to give it a try.  It is quick, effective indoors and provides beautiful soft directional lighting.  Rather than bouncing your on-camera strobe at the ceiling, try bouncing at a nearby wall or even behind your shoulder.  You are effectively using that wall as a larger, softer light source like an off-camera softbox.  I strap a piece of cardboard that I’ve coloured black with a permanent marker in order to direct as much light as possible towards the new source.  I use an elastic band to secure it in place which gives me the flexibility to move it quickly should I decide to shoot portrait or bounce light in a different direction.

Below are a few examples of using this technique in on the fly to produce stunning portraits/moments.  Each and every shot below incorporated the cardboard modifier to intelligently bounce light off larger sources to achieve soft, directional light.  If you require any further info feel free to ask in the comments section below.

An on the fly portrait taken as my wife was running out on an errand. Why? Because she was in a hurry . . . the git inside me wanted to keep her a little longer!

Strobist info you say? No believe it or not this was on-camera TTL incorporating a new technique I have been applying to my portraits and weddings. I think you will agree that this is soft, directional and very evenly exposed, just like an off-camera flash shot. I will be explaining this technique here in the near future.