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November 20, 2009 |
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Created and Maintained by: The Photoimaging Information Council |
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Knowing how to use your flash properly can give you more control over the pictures you take. Today's compacts sport amazingly sophisticated flash systems that will surprise you with their capabilities. Red Eye Reduction Annoying red eye comes when the flash bounces off your subject's retinas directly back into your camera's lens. This usually occurs in dark environments when the photographer is a considerable distance (five feet or more) from the subject. Under dark conditions your subject's pupils will dilate and expose most of the bright-red retina. The red eye reduction mode fires a pre-flash before you take the picture which causes you subject's pupils to contract, hence fixing the problem. Other ways to reduce red eye? Move closer to your subject or shoot in brighter environments. Without & With Red Eye Reduction PHOTO : Pete Kolonia Daylight Fill Flash Forgetting to engage the flash in daylight is the most common exposure problem for point-and-shoot photographers. Flash can improve your daylight photos when the subject is more shadowed than the background, or if you're shooting directly into the sun. The meter in the camera will read the bright background and not activate the flash leaving your subject dark or silhouetted. You can avoid this problem by using the fill flash mode. Even if you don't have a fill flash feature, you can trick your camera by covering up the light sensor with your finger. However, be careful not to cover the flash head or the lens when you do this. Without & With Fill Flash PHOTO : Pete Kolonia Using Slow or Night Sync When photographing in dark environments another problem besides red eye is flash falloff. In other words, the subject is illuminated, but your nice background is much darker. The slow sync feature allows you to expose for both your subject and the darker background. It is important to keep in mind that dark backgrounds can often require long shutter speeds. Therefore, it's best to put your camera on a tripod or another stable surface, or simply hold it as still as possible. If you don't you will get a sharp image of your subject, but the background may be blurry. Without & With Night Sync PHOTO : Pete Kolonia
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