Using flash


Hints and tips
by Philip Grosset



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Flash can be very useful, but it has very real disadvantages...
Red eye Red eye removed
Why has he got red eyes in the photo on the left?
This occurs because the pupil of the eye opens up in dimmer lighting: you then see the flash reflected in the blood vessels of the retina.
There are several possible solutions, of which one is to buy one of a special red-eye pen. You wait until you've got a print that needs retouching, then carefully dot the red part of the eye so that it is covered in black. Practise first on an old photo, as there's a knack to doing this! But you'll soon get the hang of it.
Or, better still, you can use a computer with an photo editing program (such as Photoshop Elements) to replace the red. The improvement can be seen top right. Notice how I've also added two catchlights by dabbing on spots of white. This helps to bring the eyes to life - but never have more than one catchlight in each eye!
Many cameras come with a red-eye reduction device that fires off preliminary little flashes - just enough to close down the iris. But these don't always make all that much difference - and they often confuse the subject! (It's more effective to arrange for your subject to be looking away from the camera, but you may not want to do this.)
You can reduce red-eye by asking your subject to glance at a bright light just before you take the picture. But this can result in a screwed-up face!
A better alternative would be to use a more powerful flash gun (so that you don't have to be so close) and to hold it well above the camera-subject axis. Or bounce its light off the ceiling. But it's a lot simpler just to buy a red eye pen, or use a photo editing program.h
The most important thing to learn about flash is HOW TO SWITCH IT OFF! See your camera manual to discover how to do this.

A common mistake when using flash is to forget its limitations: a typical built-in flash can't illuminate anything more than about 8-14 feet away (depending on the settings being used), so all those people flashing away happily at distant objects in large buildings are just wasting their time! They'd be much better to switch the flash off and prop the camera on some convenient support. This will produce the necessary longer exposure time, the only danger being camera shake.
Ely cathedral. On left: using flash.
On right: the same scene but switching the flash off and holding the camera steady.
Flash used indoors
The built-in flash is all right for people in the mid-distance, but anyone too close comes out over-exposed, and people in the distance come out dark! To avoid this, try to arrange for all your subjects to be the same distance from the camera.

To get as much as possible of a scene like the one above in focus, aim to set the focus on a person (or object) a third of the way towards the back of the area you want to be sharp.
Toddler with phone
Here, again, in this flash photo, the background comes out dark. This may be no bad thing if you're aiming at a picture of the child as there's nothing there to distract attention. Pictures like this can sometimes gain from having an amusing caption, as I've tried to provide here! If you don't want a black background, set up your subject much nearer to it - but watch out for ugly shadows..
"I've heard it all before ...."
Another way of avoiding a pitch black background, if you have a camera with a "night" setting, is to try using this as it will provide a longer exposure that will better show up any reasonably lit backgrounds - but you'll need to hold the camera really steady (or lean it against something) to avoid shake. The main intended use of the "night" setting, of course, is for outdoor night exteriors so that street lights or illuminations can still be seen behind flashlit subjects in the foreground.
Boy on phone 1 Boy on phone 2 Boy on phone 3
On the left: You can often largely avoid background shadows by positioning your subject right against the background (here it is an inside wall). I've also held the camera in the vertical position (portrait format) as, on my particular camera, this allowed the built-in flash to be immediately above the lens. The further to the side of the lens it is, the more pronounced the shadow will be.
Middle picture: Here I've held the camera in the usual horizontal position (landscape mode). Notice the thin black shadow now running down the left-hand side of the boy. Experiment with your own camera to see how much difference is made by holding it horizontally or vertically. The difference is likely to be a pretty subtle one! But you may prefer the way it makes the subject stand out from the background.
On the right: here the subject is much further away from the background. The result is that heavy shadows are cast, and the background itself comes out much darker. I actually prefer this coloring so would put up with the shadows which add some depth to the picture anyway!


Although there are certainly times when flash is really needed, it is often better to try and do without it, as this can produce much more atmospheric shots:
Natural light Flash
The photo on the above left (taken without flash, just using the natural light from a window on the left) retains much more of the feeling of the location, so is more interesting than the same scene on the right (for which flash was used).

Interiors often have much more character when taken without flash - so it's better not to use flash indoors except when really necessary. Some people seem to use flash for all their indoor pictures but nothing outdoors. Outdoors, though, fill-in flash can be really useful for filling in heavy shadows on close shots, such as those on people's faces. It's easily obtained with an automatic camera by using the forced flash control.
There are places, such as by this fish tank in the Loro Parque at Puerto de la Cruz in Tenerife, where flash is not allowed, as it would disturb the fish. It would cause reflections on the glass anyway. Flash also disturbs other people, so never use it either indoors or outdoors unless you really need it. You'll probably produce much more pleasing pictures without it.



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