Creative Use of the Flash

Everyone knows that a flash is used when it's too dark, but did you know that a great time to use it is in broad daylight too?

In daylight (Fill Flash)

All cameras have difficulty in seeing the same way we humans do, they usually struggle with bright and dark areas. For example, if there is light coming from behind someone they turn into a dark silhouette in the photo, but they looked fine as we saw them.

Using a flash at full power in full daylight is great for brightening up those dark areas and making the photo look natural and evenly balanced again. This technique is called "Fill Flash."

Make sure the shutter/ aperture are set to correctly expose the brightest areas (such as the sky). A common setting is 1/1250 for the shutter and f/5.5 for the aperture for bright sunny days. Some cameras will only allow the shutter to go up to a maximum of 1/180 when using the flash, so in this case, bump up the aperture to a higher number like f/8 or f/11.

- people infront of sunsets or bright backgrounds - in full sun, especially if the light is coming at an angle across the shot

- an object from the shadow side, so that the flash brightens it up and the background looks perfectly exposed too

- tree or plant foliage

- any situation where there is complicated lighting

NOTE: When using a flash in any situation the object shouldn't be more than 2 metres (6ft) away or the photo may turn out very dark.

Flash plus Longer Shutter

Generally a flash should be used when close to the object to be photographed, not for big open spaces.

It also can help prevent blurring with close moving objects by giving the camera more light more quickly.

However, when using the flash normally in dark lighting, the image tends to look unnatural. The common result is a well lit foreground with a black background, unnatural or no shadows, and a harsh white color cast.

To help overcome this, using the flash with a longer shutter can also capture the natural brightness and ambient colors of the background and scene.

Spectacular Nightshot Portraits

A great way to make use of the flash is during a nightshot, which is obvious, but even better to take a long exposure as well.

Say you have a nice background of a city at night and you want to take a photo of some people in front of it. Normally when just a flash is used the people will turn out great in the photo but the background will be very dark.

So what you do is still use the flash to capture the people in the photo, but with the shutter set to about 6 seconds and use a tripod. Set up the camera with these settings and take the photo.

The people will need to be in an unlit area for this to work properly (no streetlights etc). After the flash goes off get the people to stay very still and let the camera "take in" the light of the city for remaining 6 seconds. What should happen is that you'll have a nice and even balance between the people and the background.

Mood Lighting

Use the same technique in all dimmer lighting situations, and with the shutter set to perhaps 1 sec (depending on how bright the area is).

This technique can be used indoors to capture the natural ambient light color as well as the light given off by the flash. It may also work well when taking photos of dimly lit areas like in forests on cloudy days. It give exceptional results with candlelit scenes.

Foregrounds & Backgrounds

Using a flash in this situation can help get a natural exposure even with light objects.

Ideally it's better to have control over the flash power itself. Some camera's let you adjust the flash to low, medium or high output for example. If this is the case, then the flash can be used better when taking photos of objects close to it.

As with all longer exposure times, a tripod is recommended.

Bounce Flash

Because the normal flash points forward, your photos can have unnatural shadows, red eye, and the "cave" effect where the background fades to black. Redirecting the flashes light at the ceiling has the effect of a diffused natural light source, lighting everything up from above by using the whole reflective ceiling as a light. This technique is called Bounce Flash, which normally required a separate flash attached to SLR camera's.

An instant and very easy way to get natural photos from a flash is with this handy invention called a Lightscoop. Held or attached infront of your flash will direct the light upwards and bounce off the ceiling instead. This has the most desirable effect on your photos - the flash looks so natural you can't tell it was used!

The lightscoop is designed for camera's that have a popup flash, not one built into the front. Even if you can't actually attach the lightscoop to your camera, you could try simply holding it infront of your camera's flash. Likewise, an ad-hoc method is use a small mirror infront of the flash to bounce it in the direction you want it to go.

The bounce flash is the ultimate way to take great indoor photos. You don't need a tripod, you don't need to increase the ISO or slow down the shutter, you don't even need an image stabilizer in your camera - your photos will be the best quality without blurred motion.

For SLR owners

If you have an SLR camera, there are more options available to you.

The first thing I would do is get a Bounce Flash (or lightscoop) if you haven't done so already. Unlike a normal flash which only points forward, a bounce flash can adjust to point upward or even sideways.

Using it sideways is useful to point the flash up while the camera is sideways as in portraits, but can also be useful to balance or create interesting lighting.

Bounce flashes can be bought cheap for about $10 second hand, or brand new from $35.

When using an old external flash you may need to adjust the exposure manually. The older kinds have a guide on what aperture to select on the camera according to the distance the object is from you. However, you can often get the right results by setting your camera to auto. Either way, the trick is to adjust the exposure to the brightest area of the image so that the flash fills in the dark areas rather than overexpose them.

Another type of flash you may consider are fast flashes such as the Canon Speedlite. These are common in journalism for taking many pictures per second. These, like the cameras that also do this, are very expensive.

For Macro's there is of course the Ring Flash as mentioned in the Macro topic...