Using Your Camera Flash

Hello from North Photography! It has been a busy few weeks capturing portraits amongst the beautiful Autumn foliage! It may have been slow to arrive, but it has certainly stuck around! I just love it. 🙂 Follow along on Facebook to see what I’m working on each week and to enjoy featured weddings and portrait sessions. 🙂

Today we’re going to talk about ghosts. Or rather, fuzzy faces. 🙂 A friend contacted me the other day in a fuss because pictures she had taken at her daughter’s birthday party made the kids have ghosty (fuzzy) faces. I looked them over and came back with my well thought out professional answer:

“You’re flash is off MK…and your photographing 5 and 6 years olds…in a very dark room.” ::brushes hands:: All in a days work. 😉

In all seriousness though, when you photograph in a low-light situation (restaurant, outside in the evening, inside your basement…), your camera (set to Auto, Portrait, etc.) will compensate for the lack of light by using a longer exposure time. This “dragging the shutter” is great if you have a tripod and a still subject (tree, sunset, mountain), but will not work so well with children. 🙂

After my professional conclusion, MK came back with, “The flash looks terrible! It’s too bright, so I don’t use it.”

So today we will chat about how to happily use our flash to light up or little wiggly darlings and avoid “ghost” faces. 🙂

In some consumer level point and shoot (P&S) cameras, there is a flash menu that will allow you to dial down the amount of light that is emitted when your flash goes off. Google it for your camera. 🙂 This is not in all P&S cameras though, so what to do?

1) You can take a step back. This will lengthen the distance that the light is traveling to your subject and lessen the amount that reaches them. It may also allow your toddler to take advantage of your distance and take off at break neck speed. 🙂

2) Add a diffuser. Stay nearby your subject, but soften the light.

A diffuser blocks the light coming from your flash to reduce how “harsh” it can be. The best part about this is you do not need to buy a special accessory!! You most likely have everything you need right at home. 🙂

You will need tape and a white opaque material (coffee filter, printer paper, tissue). White is key because whatever color you use with show up in your photo.

Cut a small piece out to fit over your flash and tape it in place. You will have to do a few tests to see how many layers of material will diffuse your flash to your satisfaction. Usually 2-3 layers works best. Below is a sample of images I did with my Canon Powershot P&S. Forgive the location. When we are in the office, Cora likes to drag her bed into the attached bathroom to be as close as possible to us. 🙂 It’s cute.

In this case the single layer of white coffee filter added just enough of a barrier to soften the light to my liking. Two layers might have worked nice if Cora was wearing a white fluffy sweater, but since she is dark colored, we want enough light to show off her pretty coat. 🙂 There you have it!

On a different note, for some real ghostly fun, check out The Haunted Forest at the Catamount Outdoor Family Center! The opening show is this weekend (Friday and Saturday night) and the children’s matinee takes place during the 2nd weekend of shows. Devin and I volunteer each year and always have such a great time!

The evening shows are good for ages 12+ (younger if they are not easily spooked) and the matinee is great for any age, but geared towards those under 13. You will walk through the woods on a trail that is lined with over a thousand carved pumpkins and be entertained by various vignettes along the way! Such a great way to get in the Halloween spirit. 🙂 More info and tickets can be found here. Be well and Smile Often, Kathleen

The images below were all taken with my work (pro) camera on a tripod so that I could use a nice long exposure. 🙂