Often the best solution is to mix available light and flash. This can give you the best of both worlds. It minimizes the harshness of flash lighting and combines it with the more natural light in an environment.

Using the fill flash setting, you can remove the dark shadows that are present in sunlight. For example, the shadows of a woman's hat on her face can look bad. A fill flash will lighten those shadows. Fill flash is also great for backlit shots and for a portrait of a person with a sunset sky behind her.

Fill flash that is balanced with available light often produces soft, pleasing results with few deep shadows. Mixing the color of flash with house lighting, window light, and light that is bouncing off the walls can create a warm and friendly tone.

If you can hold a camera really steady or if you can keep the camera steady on a tripod or a table, slow-sync flash can produce very nice and often striking results at night. A well-lit person can stand against a dark but lit night city scene, for example.