Muki.Dorifuto.com Photography talk with random tangents into the unknown

The basics: Using flash

It's a huge subject, but here we'll talk about just your everyday pop-up flash. And if you read the post on ISO, you'll be able to use that too!

There are many circumstances in which you won't want to use flash. Most notably is when you have a reflective surface in the background of your shot or nearby.

These cases are pretty obvious; just turn off your flash when shooting in front of a window. But what about when you can't avoid it?

Reflections are only an issue when the light is directed back into the lens. If you can angle your shot or the object, many times you can continue to use flash.

For people with glasses, you can often have them turn or tilt their head, tilt their glasses, or do a combination of both. Similarly, watch out for jewelry and other accessories.

The other thing to look out for is distance. Especially with point and shoots, the little in-built flash is simply not going to have enough juice to light up distant objects. Save your batteries and push your ISO.

Speaking of ISO, doesn't that mean your camera is more sensitive to flash? That's right. So if you don't want to kill your batteries or you need to get more out of your flash, push it up a bit.

Finally, be aware of how close your subject is relative to you and the background. If they're close to you and far from a background, you'll get a "person in a black hole" effect. You want them to be close enough for your flash to reach, while close enough to a background to allow spill light to give you a point of reference.

If all else fails, find some better light and/or bump your ISO up. No more excuses for deer-in-the-headlights shots!