A little note on inverse square law, if it is not familiar just keep this in mind. If your flash is bouncing a long way from a back from the wall, then the light falls off to shadow around your subject will be minimal but if the wall you're bouncing your flash off is closer the drama of light shaping is more evident. Experiment with the angles to the wall. Bounce your flash off ceilings, walls, reflectors, whites’ boards, in fact, anything except straight at your subject and you will get some genuinely surprising results. This blog is about indoors but if your outside with just an on-camera flash get someone to hold a reflector or a big piece of white card at an angle to your subject and swivel that flashgun to face the reflector and see big soft light hit your subject from an angle, beautiful. On camera bounce flash works well with most subjects be it the children opening presents, family around the table, pets, food and so much more.
Planning 2019
Spend some time planning 2019, this is a top investment to make. For example, you may want to photograph a specific landscape location so research the best time of year and time of day that the sun is at the best angle for the subject, check out 500px and other sites for great images shot at the right time of day and year in the location you're interested. Plan your shots around this. Likewise with wildlife, research locations, behaviours and activity and when these things happen. For example, a Barn Owl hunts relentlessly in June, July and August to feed its young. I got endless shots of this fella day after day, the Owl had a few glances at me but I stayed still and he was happy to fly by really quite close with clinging to his prey as he is more occupied with feeding his young. Don’t get to close and remain still.