[Les Meehan]

Dave

The bottom line is this: The 'quality' of the light (i.e. how soft or hard the edges of the shadows are) is determined by the ratio of the size of the light source and the subject. Simply put, the bigger the light source in relation to the subject the softer the edges of the shadows will be. This is why many pros use very large light boxes placed close to the subject when requiring soft lighting.

In your experiment (which is something everyone should do to actually learn first hand) the actual size of the light source varies only slightly compared to the size of your subjects (nice mates!). This is why in your first three shots the edges of the shadows are actually virtually the same, the 'quality' of the light hasn't changed much! When you bounce the bare flash into the ceiling (or a wall for more interesting lighting) you have dramatically changed the 'size' of the light source compared to the subject (the light source is now the area of the ceiling lit by the flash) hence the shadow edges go very soft. You have dramatically changed the 'quality' of the lighting.

Bouncing the diffused flash into the ceiling has produced shadows from the flash's direct light as others have explained (even your bare flash into the ceiling has also produced a faint shadow since you obviously did not flag the flash head to prevent this stray light reaching the subject. Note that this faint shadow has hard edges too!)

I have purposely used the term 'quality' to describe the 'edges of the shadows'; this has nothing to do with 'contrast'! Note how the depth of tone in the first three shots does vary but this is because the diffused flash is bouncing light around the room which is 'filling in' the shadows and lightening them. However, since the edges are similar the light quality is similar. The use of the terms 'light contrast and 'light quality are often incorrectly interchanged (rather like depth of field and depth of focus). They should be considered two separate things when lighting a subject. A very common use of soft boxes is to produced soft-edged shadows but retain high contrast by keeping the fill-light low (or none at all) to produce that wonderfully strong but 'full' lighting seen in celebrity portraiture (check out the work of Snowdon or Lichfield for examples).

My advice would be to make a large tracing paper screen, about 3'x2', using a wooden frame (2x1 is good) covered with white tracing paper (rolls from art shops always great to have). Prop the screen where you want the light and fire flash thru screen for a great professional light (and cheap!!). On my lighting workshops I use cardboard frames of varying sizes covered with trace to get the point across that you don't need to spend money to do expert lighting, knowledge is the key! Tip: by varying the distance of the flash to the trace screen (not the distance of the screen to subject) you can fine-tune the shadow edges because you will be changing the 'size' of the light source since more or less of the screen will be lit by the flash.

Hope this helps. Lets see some renewed tests using the ideas given by folks here.

Regards

Les Meehan
Workshops in spain, come on down!