Digital camera flash may be quite limiting in nature, but that doesn't have to be the case with your imagination. Besides using the flash to illuminate badly-lit areas, you can also have a lot of fun with it. Think about it: it's a powerful source of light; cameras love light; light can so easily be manipulated. I'd bet there's an idea in your head right now!
If not, no worries, we have a few ideas you can use to get some really cool lighting effects with stuff you can find around the house.
Diffuse lighting
Using the flash in general can be a bit harsh on the subject, so what most pro photographers do is use white umbrellas to diffuse the light, making it look softer and a lot more pleasing to the senses.
But its not too hard to get a good diffuse effect from your trusty digital camera flash either. The results may not look as perfect, but it would be better than harsh flash.
What you'll need for this little project is some butter paper and an adhesive that you can use on the camera such as a mild tape, or in our case here, blue tac.

Cut the butter paper to a size which, after folding to half, will still be considerably larger than your camera flash.

Fold the paper into half, and then form an arc over your camera flash with it. Tape it at the upper and lower edges.

The end result should look like the image below. It's perfectly fine to leave the sides of the flash open – it wouldn't interfere with what the camera will capture, and in fact may add a bit of bounce lighting if there are any walls around.
The first image below was what we got with direct camera flash and the second image, by using this diffuse technique.

Pretty neat, eh? Wait till you check out the next effect!




