USE MY FLASH IN THE DAY?.. HUH?

Yes. You can & should be using your camera’s flash during the day; even on a brightly lit beach scene.



Have a look at the example photos below.

In one, we can barely make out the name on the ball. In the other it becomes quite obvious.
My camera settings never changed. The only difference is one was taken w/o the benefit of the camera flash.

This is a very simple technique anyone can employ.

How often have many of us taken a picture of friends & family only to be disappointed when we see the result? The background came out looking great, but grandma’s face is so dark we can hardly see her.
Why is this?

Simple answer: Camera meters are dumb...dumb...dumb. While camera meters have come a long way and are now far more sophisticated than years past, they still have no ability to read our minds. The camera meter does not know what we were hoping for when we snapped the picture.

Proper metering techniques, quality of light and adding light are subjects that quickly turn complex.

This short how to article is aimed at anyone who uses either a point & shoot automatic camera or a newer DSLR with a pop up built in flash that wants to just get rid of that (dark subject-great background) look.

Your camera meter looks at the available light when rendering it’s decision concerning the best settings to use. This decision is passed on to the camera that controls the (APERTURE) & (SHUTTER SPEED).

APERTURE controls the size of the lens opening. Big opening = lots of light coming in. Small opening = less light.

SHUTTER SPEED controls the duration of time that the lens allows light in.

I’ll be giving a class in the relationship of  Av/Tv/ISO sometime in the near future.

OK; so what happened to the photo of the basketball that looks dark?

My camera meter actually did a great job figuring out the proper exposure for the background.
Look at the photo. There is a lot more background percentage wise than there is basketball.

The camera meter looked at the scene and thought to itself “Hmm, pretty bright, I better set myself to expose for all this brightness”

Told ya..The meter is dumb!

I could have taken a meter reading from the basketball, but then the background would be too bright.

Surely there must be a balance somewhere?

There is!..and oddly enough it’s called BALANCED FILL FLASH. Sometimes just called FILL FLASH.

Why is it called balanced fill flash?

Because we want to (balance) the ambient or available light with the light from our flash.
In other words, we want just enough light to make our subject look natural. Ambient light + Flash = balanced for a good exposure.

Why do you call it fill flash?

Because we want to (fill) in the shadows caused by the bright sun. Harsh shadows on peoples faces don’t look flattering at all.

“Cut to the chase Pete; how do I do it?”

Most of today’s automatic camera’s do the heavy lifting for us.

There should be a small button on the automatic point & shoot camera’s that says “Fill”.
TURN IT ON! Yep, when you’re outside on a brightly lit day, just turn it on.

Many DSLR’s have a pop up flash...POP IT UP!

Your camera should be set to one of it’s automatic modes, NOT manual.

Take the shot.

Remember, the built in flash on these cameras are rather limited in their range, usually around 10-20 feet at best. If you need more range you will have to get a external flash unit

While (manual mode) is used often by many professionals, the average shooter does not use it.

This has intentionally been a overly simplified yet usable method to help us fill in the shadows of our subject. No more “Arrgh, everybody looks dark!”

If there is enough interest, I will offer some in depth explanations in the use of the more powerful and flexible TTL, iTTL, eTTL flash systems as well as when to use these modes and when not to.

If you can't wait for the more advanced techniques, I suggest the following two web sites.

WEBSITE 1  WEBSITE 2

As always, I am happy to answer your questions.

Happy shooting,

Pete

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