Digital Camera tips and advice

Use Your Digital Camera Flash For The Perfect Outdoor Portrait

Professional photographers get paid for results. They simply have to control every aspect of a photograph to make it as saleable as possible.

Below we’ll show you one of the pros’s biggest secrets - using flash to control outdoor pictures.

Most compact digital camera owners stick their cameras on ‘Auto Flash’ and leave it there. Their owners manual indicates that set to auto flash the camera will decide if the scene needs extra light and if so, it will fire the flash. Sounds good because it puts everything on automatic and you don’t need to worry about it.

Here’s proof why you’ll want to take your camera off ‘Auto Flash’ and set it to ‘Flash On.’

Note - This article is intended for beginners and people who simple want to learn how to produce predictable outdoor portraits using their compact digital camera flash.

There is a more sophisticated technique for controlling light outdoors with flash and it is called ‘fill flash.’ This article does not cover fill flash.

Here’s why Professional photographers use this technique and why you should too!

The reason your compact digital camera flash works so well in sunlight is that it compress the ratio of the background brightness to the foreground mid-tones and shadows. That more limited dynamic range allows the camera to capture details in both, in other words, your pictures will ok better.

Flash On!

Now this may seem a little odd but the next time you’re taking pictures of people, pets or objects outdoors in the sun or in the shade it REALLY pays off if you’ll set your camera to ‘Flash On’ so the flash fires on every shot regardless of the scenes light level.

Setting your camera’s flash - Most compact digital cameras have a button that looks like a lightning bolt. This is the button you will push to get the effects discussed in this article.

Professional photographers know that if they are shooting an outdoor function like a wedding reception or taking a portrait in the park they will use flash to improve the quality of the picture. In professional photography it can make the difference between a regular photo and a $money$ shot.

You can do the same thing with your compact digital camera!

True, your camera’s flash is probably not very powerful but the good news is that what might be a disadvantage indoors is actually an advantage when you use it outdoors.

Yes, you will use more battery power using this technique but once you see the results you’ll just carry more batteries because the results are worth the effort.

Camera: Sony Cyber-shot T30

Here’s the first photo taken with the camera set to ‘Auto Flash.’

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While it’s not a bad photo it does have some pretty deep shadows.

Here’s the second photo taken with the camera set to ‘Flash On.’ Meaning the camera’s flash will fire every time a picture is taken.

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Instant improvement!

Do you see the difference between the two?

In the second photo shadows are gone and notice how the background color has deepened. While neither one would classify as artsy photos I can guarantee you she will like the second picture better than the first.

Bonus Secret - Popping

Sometimes you want your subject to ‘pop‘ out of the background. In the photos below I shot in one of the toughest situations that you can throw at a digital camera, straight into the sun. In this situation your camera sensor goes into overtime trying to figure out how to properly expose the scene. In the first picture you can see the how the camera sensor decided to expose the scene.

Note how it tried to average everything and in doing so gave me a photos with rather washed out colors.

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In this second picture I turned the camera flash to ‘Flash On’ not ‘Flash Auto’ to make sure the flash would fire. I didn’t want the camera sensor thinking it had enough light and not fire the flash. In essence I forced the camera to take the kind of picture I wanted and took away any possibility of the camera ‘interpreting’ the scene.

The results are self evident.

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So here’s your homework.

Drag out your digital camera owners manual and learn how to set your camera from ‘Auto Flash’ to ‘Flash On.’ Your outdoor people pictures will have an instant improvement!

Note: Remember to turn it back to ‘Auto Flash’ for regular use.