Experimentation with Flash

While I had the flower pot in place I experimented with using the 'on camera' flash both directly and bouncing it of a multi-surface reflector, that gave a variety of possibilities, white, black, silver and gold. I also tried this using the AWB and the camera 'flash' white balance.  None of the images have been altered in photoshop.

AWB - direct flash

AWB and direct flash, This gave a very similar effect to using a direct single undiffused bulb, although the shadow edges are slightly less harsh and are directly behind the plant. The colour is too blue

Flash WB - direct flash

Here the white balance was set to the camera's 'flash ' setting. The colour is much too yellow and seems slightly overexposed.

AWB - silver reflector

Here the flash is bounces off a sliver reflector placed to the right of the flowers. The shadows are considerable softer, and the overall image less blue.

AWB - white reflector

Here the colour is again slightly blue, but the shadows are nicely softened, and the leaves show very well.

AWB - black reflector

Using a black 'reflector' to bounce the light off interestingly gives much deeper shadows, and more detail in the pot, with less reflection from it, however the image is too cold

AWB - gold reflector

As would be expected the gold reflector gives a much warmer image, and overall a very pleasant effect. The plants leaves are probably slightly too yellow but the pot is not over-exposed with a blown highlight, and the table is the correct colour.

I did repeat all the variations with the camera's flash setting for white balance, but they were all unpleasantly yellow, and there was little difference visible using the various reflectors.

In this instance I prefer the picture taken using the silver reflector, but I think the gold one is equally pleasing, just a less accurate colour rendition. 

This is certainly worth exploring further, especially when taking pictures of people using flash either inside or as an adjunct outside.