The inbuilt pop-up flash in most camera’s is purely for amateurs. It has no potential to create great photographs when fired directly over the subject. Being a compact camera user, I always wished it had an hotshoe so I could mount an external flashgun for creative lighting. Left with no hotshoe option, I decided to bounce it using a white card paper from another white paper. The results were astonishingly brilliant. I regret not having done this before though I had it on my mind for sometime now.


Offcourse do not expect the bounced inbuilt flash to light for a portrait or a subject far off. It can only be used to shoot macros & other closeup photography like Tabletops.

To achieve optimum results, I photographed in a dark room so every ounce of light could be exploited. The photographs shown here are taken in manual mode with a long exposure(1 sec) & the flash fired at full power to ensure good lighting. I directed it on the subject at my preferred angle & blocked the light as per my needs by placing cutters strategically.

If your compact camera doesn’t has manual mode you can experiment using the night landscape mode. Even if you do not get the desired results soon don’t give up. Keep trying & you should definitely succeed. Also once you are successful, drop a link to your image in the comment for all to see. 🙂