For me, the omni bounce seems to work best in tight quarters situations. What this $17 piece of plastic does is to allow the light to escape from the flash head in multiple directions. This light that leaves the camera at different angles 'bounces' off walls and ceilings to illuminate your subject from different directions. The purpose in this is to reduce some of the shadow effects that are created by the flash.
In a large room where the walls and ceiling are not as close together, all you are doing by using the omnibounce is reducing the guide number of your flash by a factor of about 2.5x. Your Canon G5 should be using the E-TTL metering with your flash. I'm assuming you are using either a 420ex or a 550ex with it. Using the omnibounce in a situation like you describe here will soften the flash shadow effects, but you may still end up with underexposed photos if you are not close enough to your subjects. |
