After I got my D90, my dad let me have his old(But barely used) flash unit from his SLR. This is great because it allows me to play with the lighting of subject and be creative with different lighting angles. However, pointing the flash directly at your subject is usually not effective and can cause ugly shadows. In order to get rid of those, you want to bounce the light off of a wall behind you, or the ceiling. You can also use a small bounce car that is mounted to the flash unit to act as a "wall". Heres how to make one for nearly free.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

I say "nearly" free because you can make this with materials you already have laying around. Fortunately, my dad spent a fair amount of time working at printing companies, yielding a large array of different type of paper available to me.

Tools:
* Scissors,
* Pencil,
* Ruler.

Materials:
* Cardstock/thick paper of your choice,
* Wide rubber band (You can find these on produce usually).

Step 2: Draw Your Pattern

Measure your flash. In my case, i decided the card is going to be 1 3/4" at the base.

Make marks at 1", 2 3/4", and 3 3/4". Extend those lines up about 1 inch.

Mark off 4 inches up on the piece of paper.

Draw a line from the end of the 1 inch line to the mark you just made.

Either draw straight across the top, or get something and draw a circular arc between the two points.

Step 3: Cut It Out!

Basically cut out the pattern. Trace this onto any other colors of paper you want, and cut them out.

Step 4: Use It!

Slip the rubber band around the end of your flash, and slip the bounce card into the side closest to you. For different intensities or color, use a shinier/duller/whiter/colored paper. I made one out of white cardstock, sparkly off-white stock, silver and gold stock. The silver is by far the brightest, but the gold is better for people and most objects. For these pictures, I set my camera to ISO 100, f/8 and 1/100 sec. The flash is manual, so the only thing different between the photos is the color of the card.