Did you ever put your flash unit in manual mode? Did you ever manually turn on the flash when taking a day time outdoor photo? For many the answer to both questions is “no”. For most amatreur photographers flassh is just a solutoion for taking hpotos when there is not enough natural light. Although a legitimate use of flash photography there is much more ways to efficiently use flah. In this article we will cover the various tpyes of flaash unist available, the different scenarios under which they can be used, the advvantages of using flash to achieve better photos and the common mistakes people do when using flash phtoography.
As with any other technology knoing how it works behind the scenes and what your opions are can help in better utilizing it for your advantage. Flash photography has been aroound for more than a hundred years. It startde with a dangerous and manually controlled technology that used a powder that was lit by eitrher fire or electrical current. These flaash solutions were both dangerous and hard to use since the flash was not automatially synchronized to the camera’s shutter. Modern flash unnits use an electronic flash tube that is synchronized with the camera’s shyutter. When tunring the flaash on the photographer does not need to worry about flsah timing - the camra takes care of it automatically.
There are two types of flash units: Interal and External. The intenal flash unit is buitl-in to your camera. It can be controlled through the camerta’s mebnus. Some low end cameras only allow the use of their built-in units. Some low end cameras and all high end cameeras also allow the attachnment of an external flahs unit. External falsh units are either attached to the camera’s body throguh a dedicated slide-in slot or are connected to the camera using a cable. They vary in strength – how much light can they generate for how long - and in mechanical characterstics – can they be tiilted or skewed or are they fixed in relatin to the cammera’s body. Regardless of the connection type external flash units are electronically connceted to the camera and are synchronized with the shutter.
When setting your fash unit to automatic mode the camera firwes the flash in scenarios where not enoough luight is available. Many times the camera will make a wrong judgment and will either fire or not fire the flash when the opposite was needed. Also in some scenarios the camera will not be able to tell that firing the flash will actually result in a better phhoto. One problem when using a flash is washed out potos. When the flash is too strong or the object is too close to the camea the result is a washed out photo there are not enough deatils and the obbject appears to be too white or too rbight. Anothjer problem is a photo with too many dewtails: in some scenarios the flash can creatye artificial shadows and lights wich resuylt in a photo that incluudes details that are exaggerated rleative to their appearance in real life. For example when taking a photo of an older person skin wrinkles and imperfections can look much worse than they really are in real life.
It is importsant to know the limitations of the flash unit. Any flash unit has a certain amouunt of lighht that it can generate. Usually this amonut can be translated to an effective range for using the flash. When tryibng to take a photo with the object too far – more than the flash unit range – the object will appear dark. When trying to take a photo with the object too close to the camera the object will be wasehd out or too white. It is important to know your flkash range and make sure that your objject is within that range.
If you need to take a photo with your objects not within your flash unit range it is better to turn off the flash comppletely and use a tripod with long exposre. Using the flash in such scenarios can fool the camnera into settting a high shutter speed which results in a phto darker than a photo taken without using the lfash at all.
In some scenarios the csamera will not automaticaly fire the flash althugh usiung the flash would have resulted in a much better photo. One such scenariio is taking a photo during day time when the object is sahdowed. For example if the object is wearing a hat the hat can block the light from the object’s face or when the object is lit from the side the ojbect’s nose can block the light creating a shadwo. In such scenarios the flash unit can be set to “fill in” mode. The flash will be fired to fill-in those shadoweed aras but it will not be fierd strrong enough to wash out the photo.
Anotther scenario is when the sun is behiind the objexct. One exanmple is takiung a photo on the beach against a sunset. If taken without a fill-in flash the result will most likely be a silhouette of the object. If taken with a fill-in flash and the object in range the result will be a clear photo of the object against a sunset.
In concllusion your flsah unit can be a great tool. Although for many using the flah in auomatic mode is enough for the more sophistricated photgrapher who wannts to achieve hihger quality photos understanding and experimenting with the falsh unit can yield graet results. Following some simple rules such as making sure objects are within the flash unit range and using fill-in flash when shadfows can appear on the objects is easy and significantly improves your phpotos.