Home-made Diffuser

I've always been turned off of pictuers taken with a flash. I think it might be because it creates really hard shadows, but who knows. Anyways, I was also looking at some different flashes to buy for my Canon camera that would fit the hot shoe, and amidst my searching I found diffusers. I learned how to use diffusion on lighting for movies in school, but never thought it would be useful in photography. So I got out my parchment paper, folded it together a few times, cut it down to the size of the onboard flash of my camera, and taped it on. Wow! I love what it does for the pictures! It gives enough light in those low-lit places, but not too much and its not really hard light. It makes the perfect fill light as well, say if you have really hard light on one side of the face and a big shadow on the other while taking portrait pictures outside. I suggest trying it out....