Have fun! Something that just occurs to me is the possibility of using direct flash to photograph a museum exhibit that is enclosed in a glass box. I'd be interested in your results should you try this.
There is no need for the flashgun to be seen. In the picture that I took I intended to show the flashgun but by pointing it up there is no problem there. You don't want to use the flash straight ahead any way.
My dispute is with your statement "There is no different with shooting directly." I think I explained this adequately in my response to you. The rest of my response, below, is mainly for other readers who may not follow that gist.
What I'm saying is simply, if one uses a (smallish) on-camera flash as the sole illumination to take a self-portrait in a mirror, then a very substantial glare will exist in the image. (The small area of the flash is producing 100% of the illumination of the subject, and consequently must appear much, much brighter than other parts of the scene.) However, the use of two polarizing filters, as I initially described, can DRASTICALLY reduce the photographed glare from the flash head, making it nearly insignificant in the photograph. As a wild guess, I would say perhaps 98% or more reduction.
There is no need for the flashgun to be seen. In the picture that I took I intended to show the flashgun but by pointing it up there is no problem there. You don't want to use the flash straight ahead any way.
That self portrait of the camera does have a little flair at the flash. The OP's assignment didn't say anything about just a little flair tho!
So does that polarizer effect require a linear polarizer or a circular polarizer? I was way off for a while there thinking he meant lighting a Night Club!
That self portrait of the camera does have a little flair at the flash. The OP's assignment didn't say anything about just a little flair tho!
So does that polarizer effect require a linear polarizer or a circular polarizer? I was way off for a while there thinking he meant lighting a Night Club!
You can use either, but if you want the light to be polarized on leaving the filter a circular polarizer must be mounted so the light goes through it the opposite way to normal (effectively making it a linear polarizer)