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Hack 39 Outdoor Fill Flash

It might seem crazy at first, but one of the
best times to turn on your flash is when you're
taking outdoor portraits on a bright, sunny day.

Working with your camera's flash can be
counterintuitive. Often, you'll capture more
compelling indoor pictures when you turn off the flash, and get great
shots when you activate it outdoorsquite the opposite of what
you'd expect.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the
one killer tip that will improve your pictures more than
any other is to turn on your flash for outdoor portraits. As shown in
Figure 4-1, the flash helps balance the lighting of
the subjects with the ambient light outdoors.

Figure 4-1. An outdoor portrait, brightened by fill flash

While there's a lot of light available when
you're shooting portraits outdoors, it
isn't always coming from the angle you want.
Here's a little lighting tip to keep in your back
pocket: light coming from the side accentuates texture, and light
coming from the front flattens it.

So, keeping this in mind, what type of light do you think your mother
would like you to use when taking her portrait? Side lighting with
lots of texture? Most likely not. How about some front lighting that
softens the appearance of wrinkles and pores, please?

For outdoor portraits, many photographers take this pearl of wisdom
and position the model so that the sun is shining directly in her
face. Hmmm...Mom's not going to like that much, is
she? So, how do you get around this apparent photographic paradox?

The answer is to find a comfortable
spot for her to stand in the open shadeunder a tree is
lovelywith a complementary background that
doesn't include any distracting elements. Now, turn
on your flash. With most cameras, you do this by looking for the
button with a little lightning bolt on it. As you press the button,
you will cycle through all the available flash settings. Use the
setting called Fill Flash or Manual On.

Make sure you're standing within eight feet of Mom.
That distance is the range for those convenient, yet somewhat wimpy
built-in camera flashes. If you stand too far away, the light will
peter out before it ever reaches your beloved, and you
won't reap the benefits of this technique.

Now, fire at will. Your camera will balance the background lighting
with that of the flash, rendering a perfectly exposed portrait. And
what direction is the main light coming from? You got it: the front.
Dear Mom will immediately designate you as her favorite child (but
please don't tell the others).

If you want to fiddle with this technique, here are a few more hot
tips:

Extend the range of your built-in camera
flash another few feet by increasing your ISO setting from 100 to
200.

Add an external flash
unit, if your camera accepts one, for even more distance.

Use the Flash Exposure Compensation control to
increase or decrease the amount of light the flash emits at exposure.
This control is often set to -1 to downplay the appearance of fill
flash, resulting in a more natural portrait. If your camera has this
option, you will find it in the menu of controls.

Leave your fill flash on for outdoor events, such as birthday parties
and family reunions. Stay close to your subjects when taking their
picture. You'll be amazed at how bright and colorful
your images will be.

Bring an extra battery. Fill flash does drain your
camera's battery faster, so have an extra on hand
for the homestretch of the event.

Using your flash outdoors might be counterintuitive, but the results
are smashing. You just have to give it a try.