Flash Settings
Less expensive cameras will have less powerful flashes. More expensive cameras tend to have more power and a variety of settings. Some come with a number of exposure settings that let you mix flash with available light.
Light increases and diminishes very rapidly as distance changes. Double the distance and you need four times as much light. Halve the distance and you need a quarter as much light. To say it mathematically, the intensity of a light source varies with the square of the distance.
Most flashes will come with several of these settings. Do not expect them all in a basic camera. However, a dedicated flash may have a number of other settings in addition to these listed.
Automatic flash: This setting simply computes a value for the flash exposure for the particular light situation and fires the flash. If there is enough light, the flash will not fire since the camera thinks that the scene does not require a flash.
Fill flash: If you want the flash to fire in a daylight situation, use the fill flash setting. This will add the flash to the existing lighting and remove many harsh shadows caused by sunlight.
No flash: Some cameras will automatically fire a flash when they detect that there is not enough light. If you do not want the flash to fire under these circumstances, turn the flash off.
Red-eye reduction mode: In this setting an initial flash or flashes are used to cause the pupils in people's eyes to close before the main flash fires. This can help reduce the problem of red-eye. In many cases this setting does not work. However, red-eye is not hard to correct in the digital darkroom with image software.
Slow-sync flash: Flash in nighttime situations often result in a brightly lit subject with a black background. To add detail to the background and to bring the existing available light to the scene, steady the camera with a tripod when using the slow-sync flash setting. This mode will allow the subject to be lit properly with the flash but then also expose the picture for available light, often for a very long shutter speed. For creative effects, mixing the very fast light of the flash with a slow exposure can result in unusual images.
Some expensive cameras will let you choose high, medium, or low flash intensities. This gives you much more control over the light and also allows the flash to recycle faster and conserve battery power at the low setting.
A flash lighting that is reflected off a wall or ceiling or other surface is called bounced lighting. You need to have a flash that you can direct toward a ceiling while you aim your camera lens at your subject. This technique allows you to capture flattering pictures without the harsh light of a direct flash. It tends to be quite even, with mild shadows. The angle of the shadow will be the angle of the bounce and the bounce surface will absorb some light. In addition, the light will take on the color of the bounce surface. To further complicate things, the distance the light travels will be the total distance to the bounce surface and then back to the subject. For this reason, trying to bounce a flash off of a high ceiling will not produce good results. Calculations can be tricky, but with the LCD review, adjusting settings and determining the bounce angle should not be hard. To make things very easy, bounce cards can be attached above a flash for bouncing. These often provide quick and easy flash lighting for most situations. You simply attach the card to your flash and it will direct the flash.
There is no substitute for experience. Try out different exposure settings and compare results. Experienced photographers learn to try a number of different options before understanding which will work best in a given situation. Flash is particularly difficult and is an art form in itself.
You will need to experiment a bit to see what your digicam's flash can and cannot do. Most built-in flash units are small and are designed to light up subjects close by. Take a series of indoor shots with your subject standing or sitting at different distances from your camera. Take shots of your subject in front of a light source, such as a window, with and without the flash to see how a flash can “fill in” darkened areas.
