In Camera Flash

Natural light will always win over artificial light. However there will be times when you need that built in flash, or that big external flash. It’s just the beast of burden; the sun eventually goes down and leaves you with only darkness. Personally I hate using flash. For me, when I use a flash, the pictures look artificial. You can tell the flash went off. You get a weird glow on the pictures and it makes everything look way to bright. There are two different styles of flash that I used; a built in flash, and a external flash mounted to the camera.

 Well after this lesson about flash I’ve learned a thing or two about my camera’s flash. I’ve learned it can be a great filler during the day taking portraits or macro pictures. I also found out that I can use a variety of different techniques to change the position and brightness of the flash. One of the best tools I’ve been using along with the built in flash is a diffuser. If you don’t have one of these in your collection now, you should go out and buy one! It can be a life saver if you need to find that perfect blend between a strong flash and a soft light in the picture. The diffuser works exactly like how it sounds. It slips in front of your flash and makes the flash light pass through a diffusing screen which dampens the effects of the flash. This can create some unique and creative pictures. Another technique is using a bounce or swivel flash to change the origination of the flash. This can make it so you actually fire the flash at the ground or ceiling instead of directly at your subject. The can create some intense and very fun shadows. I also played around with reflective screens and light enhancers. This created a stronger brighter flash to get rid of any shadows on the subject. This can also be achieved by using multiple flashes on stands and have them be fired by one master flash. For most setups this will require an expensive flash mounted on the camera, and then any flash that can be used as a slave. The slave portion just means that the flash is fired when the master flash goes off. Using this technique is a great way to get a completely lighted subject and is better used in a stationary studio.

While I now understand how to use flash more and I feel like I have a good understanding of what I would need to use one for great pictures, I still prefer natural light. Although, being able to understand all of your options and how to use them is a priceless lesson. You never know when you will need more light, even during the day time! I was really surprised with how a flash can be used for a filler even during the day. So my suggestion is to experiment and see how you like using your built in flash, what do you have to lose!?

White Balance

This week I had the great opportunity to go into the Adirondacks on a school Residency trip. I took a photography class while there and while it was beautiful the weather was a little temperamental. We would have beautiful sunlight and clouds one minute and the next it would be snowing and very grey. This made it very important to use my cameras built in white balance system. Adjusting the white balance on a camera allows you to take photographs in different types of light and still get respectable and preferred results. There are many different styles of lighting in the world, everything from natural sunlight to the flame of a Bic lighter. Depending on the light source you always want the camera to read the right lighting, and color for your pictures. You can easily take pictures in different lighting situations, but knowing white balance is the way to make them look the best.

Most cameras give you the same options in white balance; Auto, Tungsten, Florescent, Cloudy, Daylight, Flash, and Shade. The different types of light can make your pictures look blue, warm, bright, orange, or green. Almost all digital cameras built in today’s consumer market have an option to change the white balance. You can check online before making a purchase or play with the camera in the store to check the camera you want. While I wouldn’t say it is the end all for purchasing or upgrading your camera, I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a new camera.

On my vacation, I had to use the cloudy setting a lot as you can tell from the pictures. The lake was very grey without the Auto white balance on. Also in the picture of the deer you can really see the difference in color and brightness. The second picture is much more vibrant then the first one is. Another option for changing your camera to match the white balance you want is to carry a white balance sheet with you. You place the sheet in front of your camera and take a picture with your camera in manual white balance mode. This tells your camera what white is supposed to look like and it matches your computer accordingly. All this information is covered in your cameras manual. I found being able to quickly change the white balance on my Canon Rebel t1i a great feature to get the composition and exposure I wanted.

 It definitely made my trip and pictures I was taking a lot easier. I wasn’t sure at first how it would work or what the results would be. However once I started playing with the options and got the white balance set correctly I got some incredible pictures. And yes you can do a lot of post editing on your pictures to adjust and fix the color. But when you’re taking 1200+ pictures it would be counter-productive to go through and edit them all when you can take the picture right the first time with such a quick change.

ISO and Sensitivity

How much light is too much? How much light do you need for a good shot? Light is the most important factor in photography. It can literally mean the difference in night and day. A cameras ability to let more or less light in and the way it can handle different lighting situations can make you a pro at the balancing of light if you can set the right ISO. Your cameras photo sensor is used to record the image and magnify or decrease the light sensitivity. When you increase the amount of ISO on your camera it increases the amount of light your sensor will try to maximize from the picture. This allows you to take a brighter picture in low light. The downfall of increasing ISO is the image can have increased noise. Noise in your picture can degrade the image quality and make it appear less sharp. 

The part you need to master is knowing how much light you need for most situations. You can learn this by taking more pictures in a slew of different lighting situations. It will always benefit your pictures to take them with an ample amount of light. However you will not always have perfect lighting and you will need to increase your ISO. You can use different modes on most DSLR’s to control ISO. All the automatic modes will automatically set the ISO; you will have to venture onto the “manual” portion of your cameras controls. That means you can use creative, manual, program, aperture priority, and shutter priority mode. Your camera may have others, and they may be listed differently so please refer to your manual if you cannot figure out which ones give you control the ISO. You can turn you camera to program mode for example and then set your ISO to a level you think is high enough for the lighting you currently have. A great thing about digital cameras is being able to immediately view your results. So you will know if you increased your ISO to much or if you didn’t increase it enough. If your picture is too dark you will need to increase your ISO, if too bright or too grainy you will need to lower your ISO. 

I had fun playing around with the different ISO settings on my camera. I went from the top to bottom of my cameras range and shot a multitude of different pictures. They varied from bright natural light to low level night scenes with no flash. Most of the pictures I took came out and were recognizable; however some did come out with a lower quality, mostly because of a higher ISO rating. My best advice is to get use to your camera and its limits. You can read lots of reviews online about how your camera will perform and act in different situations. Those reviews will mean nothing to you because they don’t know how that camera will work with you and what situations you will put it through. Do the right thing and get out and use that camera!