Saturday, October 19, 2013

Using fill flash

The flash built into your camera can add extra light to the foreground of a subject even when the subject and scene overall are well lit.

If you can't decide whether the front of your subject is well lighted, stand off a few feet and use the flash to fill in extra light. Don't stand too far away because a flash may only cover out to 6 or 8 feet from the camera.

If you are shooting in a location where the burst of light from your flash would be rude, or prohibited as in a theater, gallery, museum or church, use Program mode to increase the camera's shutter speed. Don't change the aperture.

Raising the ISO

To increase the shutter speed in Program mode, raise the ISO starting at 800. Keep increasing the number until you get a fast enough shutter speed that permits you to handhold the camera. That's probably going to be 1/30 second or faster.  If you must use a slower shutter speed, make sure image stabilization is turned on if your camera has that feature.

If you are shooting indoors, where lighting typically is poor, hold the camera steady with a tripod or by propping it against a wall, chair, stack of books, pillows, or bench. Breathe slowly with a natural rhythm as you gently press the shutter release.

Inside, where the color of ambient light varies, turn on Auto White Balance (AWB).

A camera may have various white balance modes, but Auto and Daylight are the most important.

Auto White Balance

AWB controls how colors look in your camera.

It corrects the color of light indoors, outdoors under streetlights and event lighting. It removes the color cast from artificial lights to make a scene look more natural.

Daylight White Balance

Daylight White Balance helps you hold onto the colors you see in natural light, like a golden sunset, blue dusk, or a foggy morning.  It doesn't work well with fluorescent or tungsten lights.

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