Flash Secrets

With winter coming, the sun sets around 5:30 this time of year. Which means that I have three options for photos:

1 - Use my on board flash
This creates harsh unflattering shadows and washes out the kid's faces. I don't go this route unless I'm out of options.
2 - Use no flash
Using this option means that although I almost always shoot wide open, I'll have to crack up the ISO. This gives me very noisy photos. I also get lots of shadows from the overhead lighting. Not the best way to go, either.
3 - Use my off camera flash
If used correctly, this yields nice even lighting and natural looking photos.

Although I've had my flash for a couple of years now, but I just haven't used it that much. Once evening this week I decided to pull out my flash and snap some photos.
With the boys off to Tae Kwan Do (Kevin and Lex watching Hunter),the girls were my models.






Should have opened up aperature for this one, but it's still cute.




I learned the secret to natural looking flash from a photo message board. It sounds odd, but the settings to these photos were as follows -

ISO 200
fstop 2.8
Shutter 1/50

Yep, the shutter was that low. This is due to the fact that the flash freezes the action, so you don't need a fast shutter speed. Lowering your shutter speed lets the available light into the photo, which eliminates the harsh shadows. It's a win- win formula that works for me. I also bounced the flash off the available walls. Behind me in one, to the side on the others. Using the ceiling isn't the best option because it gives shadows below the eyes / nose / chin.

Now you know the flash secret. Give it a try and you might be surprised at how well this method works!