DiscussionOne speedlight at home: ceiling bounce, wall bounce or umbrella for family portraits?

Winter here means it is dark by half past four, so if I want portraits of the family it is flash or ISO 12800. I have one Godox speedlight (TT685, old one) and the A7 V, mostly with the 85 1.8.

What I tested so far:

Bounce off ceiling, which is white and about 2.6 m. Gives clean, even light but flat, and shadows under the eyes on my wife.

Bounce off the wall to the side and behind me. Better, more direction.

Then I bought a cheap 100 cm shoot-through umbrella on a stand, flash triggered from camera with an X2T. This is the most "portrait" looking, but the room becomes like a studio and the kids immediately stop being natural.

Question for people who do this more: for relaxed family pictures at home, which would you choose? And what power and distance do you use with the umbrella so the background does not go black? Happy to answer questions.

Wall bounce, behind and to one side, and flag the flash with a bit of black foam so none of it goes straight forward. That's 90% of what an umbrella does without turning the living room into a set.

For the background, drag the shutter. Something like 1/30 or 1/60 at f/2.8, ISO 800 or so, and let the room's lamps come up. The flash does the faces, the ambient does the room. If the lamps are very warm, a quarter CTO gel on the flash stops the faces looking blue against an orange room.

If you do use the umbrella, bring it close, a metre or so from her face, and keep the flash at low power, 1/16 or 1/32. Close and soft beats far and powerful, and the falloff keeps it from looking like a passport photo. The background going black is the ambient being underexposed, not the flash being wrong. Same fix: slower shutter.

The umbrella is the right tool when you want a portrait. Wall bounce is the right tool when you want your family to forget you're there.

dmitri_k said:

the room becomes like a studio and the kids immediately stop being natural

This is exactly why I bounce at receptions too. The second guests see a light stand they start posing, and the candid stuff is what couples actually pay for. Bounce, and don't be afraid to go +0.7 or even +1 on flash comp when you're bouncing off something far away or off-white, TTL tends to under-do it.

Also turn the head of the flash, not just tilt it. Bouncing off the wall behind your left shoulder gives you nice directional light from the side, and the ceiling fills a bit in. Two surfaces, one flash.

cdalton_photo said:

flag the flash with a bit of black foam

Tried it now with a piece of foam from a box and a hair band. Big difference, the eye shadow is mostly gone and my son did not notice the flash at all. Will try the slower shutter tomorrow when the lamps are on.

cdalton_photo said:

flag the flash with a bit of black foam

Best free mod in photography honestly. Mine has been on my flash so long it's gone grey. Cheaper than any modifier you'll ever buy and it fits in a pocket

cdalton_photo said:

Wall bounce is the right tool when you want your family to forget you're there.

Ok this thread is making me think flash might not be so scary?? I've always avoided it because it looks so harsh when I've tried, like my kids look like they're in a hostage video lol

jenna_whitlock said:

it looks so harsh when I've tried

It's harsh when it's pointed at people. Point it at the ceiling or a wall and it's just a bigger window, and you already know how to use windows. Try it on the kids one evening with the flash at 1/8 power bouncing off the wall behind you.

Small update: wall bounce plus flag, 1/60 f/2.8 ISO 640, flash on TTL at +0.3. My wife says these are the first pictures where she does not look like a police photo. I call this success.