The pop-up flash on the EOS-10D is actually pretty powerful for its size. Unfortunately, it's only good for fill-in or slow-sync duty, if you don't want that frozen-in-the-headlights flash look. There is a solution, however: a bit of creativity and home crafts can provide you with an ugly but quite serviceable way to bounce the flash or diffuse it, for more pleasant illumination. Introducing the FinnBounce and the Smelfen!

A flash diffuser is basically a milky, translucent box put around the flash head. It turns the directional, point-like flash into an omnidirectional, larger source. The gain is in more even illumination and slightly softer shadows. The loss is in flash power. An even better solution is to bounce the flash off a white or neutral-colored ceiling or wall: this will effectively move the light source away from the camera, at the same time making it diffuse and much larger: the result is lighting that could be mistaken for natural light. The Smelfen and FinnBounce are the solutions for the 10D's on-board flash. I'm sure both can be easily adapted for just about any similar flash. The 10D pop-up flash is quite powerful enough to fully illuminate a smallish room. Crank the ISO up to 800, and it's quite serviceable for surprisingly demanding purposes.

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