The Advantage of a Flash Bracket

DAVE CROSS

Another popular tool with wedding photographers is a flash bracket. These brackets get the flash off the camera and up high enough away from the lens that they nearly eliminate the red-eye problem caused by flash. But there’s another huge advantage that becomes clear the moment you go to shoot a shot in vertical (portrait) orientation. If your flash is sitting on top of your camera (in the flash hot shoe), and you turn the camera sideways for a tall shot, your flash winds up lying on its side to the side of your camera, so now you have a new set of problems. Well, a flash bracket lets you flip the flash back upright, so although the camera is turned sideways, the flash is still straight above your lens. The flash bracket I use is the WPF-QR Bracket from Really Right Stuff (it’s $170 direct from www.reallyrightstuff.com). It’s extremely well-built, lightweight, and it lets you flip your flash upright with just one simple move. (Note: When using a flash bracket, I always use a dome diffuser to soften and spread the light, and still try to bounce the light off the ceiling or nearby wall whenever possible. At the very least, I aim the flash straight upward as mentioned in “Where to Aim the Flash” a couple pages back.)