Mood is often the difference between a good photograph and a great one. Advances in flash photography make our lives much easier. In skilled hands, flash not only lights up a picture, but adds a desired mood to a photo.
Using one's flash off camera used to be cumbersome, but most good flash units today have swiveling heads. One of my favorite techniques is to use a corner in a room to get an umbrella effect. Point your flash toward that corner, and preferably set up your flash-camera rig for a fairly wide aperture, such as f2.8 or f4. This not only helps to blur out your background, but also insures that your picture will not be underexposed.
Most professionals use direct flash only on rare occasions. Many prefer to use ceilings to bounce light off of, sometimes even using their hand as a reflector. I like this technique, because it gives pictures a warm glow.
If you have no ceiling available for bouncing flash, try using direct flash in TTL or AUTO mode, setting your fstop at f2.8 and your shutter speed at about 1/15, or maybe even 1/8. This will come close to balancing ambient light with your flash. This technique can be tricky, however, as your subjects may be blurry from movement. This, however, can also be used to convey a "feeling" in a photograph.
Photo Class is a series of lessons in photography by Billy Calzada for beginning and intermediate students. Visit Photo Class often, as new lessons will be posted periodically.