Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Wednesday Wisdom

I know that you were all terribly devastated when no Wednesday Wisdom came out last week. What can I say? I was out of the country! I will try to make up for it this week by giving you a really good one.

ARE YOU A FLASHER?
When you go to a concert or even your child's concert in the school gym, ever noticed those insipid flashes going off clear up in the nosebleed section? They look pretty (kind of like little fireflies in an otherwise non-firefly-ey kind of environment) but they really aren't doing a whole lot -- and in some cases they are actually making your picture worse. So the first thing you need to learn is how to turn off your flash when you DON'T need it and know how to turn ON your flash when you do.

When do you NOT need it:
Most point and shoot camera flashes only reach a light boundary of maybe 5-6 feet. If you are further away from your subject than that, you are basically lighting up the area in front of your subject and leaving them even further in the dark (because you camera will expose for the lighted area in front of your subject). So if you in a nighttime situation (or darkened room) where you have taken a picture and you really don't like the outcome, try turning off your flash, re-taking the picture and seeing if you like it any better. If it looks really blurry then you have what is called camera shake and you are basically in a really tough situation picture-taking-wise. Try placing your camera on a tripod and taking the picture or try placing your camera on a steady surface (i.e. wall, nearby seat, nearby ledge, etc.). If that still doesn't work -- you'll have to probably what we in the photography business call, "up your ISO". Unfortunately, this is another discussion for another time. If you are interested let me know and I will let you in on this little secret.

When should you turn ON your flash:
This will have to be the topic for next week's Wednesday Wisdom, so stayed tune!

Hope you enjoyed this very little bit of information. If you liked it, let me know. If you have something specific you would like covered, let me know that also! Take care until next week.


The following pictures were all taken with a point and shoot -- another story for another time -- a very sad "other time".

This picture was taken with a flash. Notice how Mona Lisa was out of the camera's flash's range. Consequently it is dark.

This picture was also taken with a flash. Notice how Ashley is exposed correctly, but poor Mona is left in the dark. The camera exposed for Ash -- not Mona.
Here I turned off the flash on the point and shoot and voila! Both Ash and I, AND Mona Lisa are exposed correctly. Would I blow this picture up to a 20x30? Probably not, okay, definitely not. But you take what you can get when you are in the city of love!





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