I have submitted this image to the Digital Photo Challenge "Flash Photography"

and asked by John McKnight if I could share the technique used for this effect.

This particular photo was taken with a combination of slow shutter speed, zoom burst and obviously flash. Since I avoid as much as possible the use of direct flash, I bounced my flash over my shoulder into the ceiling and the wall to my right. The idea is to get a softer light effect that a direct flash would have produced.

The way you do it is by zooming in (or out) and then firing your photo. Your main subject(s) will be frozen up to a certain extent and creating the burst effect on the background that is  at a farther distance from the flash.

You can create other effects, by panning, moving your camera in different directions, up and down, circular movement, etc.

For this to work, you need to use slow shutter speed and wide apertures, otherwise you would make life very difficult for your flash.

Settiings for this image were: f/4.5 - 1/15 sec - ISO 800

Here are a couple of pull back shots without any effect to show how it looked in real life.

Left image: f/2.8 - 1/60sec - ISO 2500 / Right image: f/3.5 - 1/80sec - ISO 2000