use flash on camara or not?

[marieadela]

I was wondering what flash setting to use on my aps camara. It has the following features: red-eye reduction, fill flash, no flash, night portrait and landscape/night view.

 

Which one of these features would be the best to capture sunrise and sunset.

Scenic pictures involving water during the day in St. John, St.Thomas and St. Maarten. As well as landmarks.

 

Thanks for you help inadvance.

[bruceh4]

I was wondering what flash setting to use on my aps camara. It has the following features: red-eye reduction, fill flash, no flash, night portrait and landscape/night view.

 

Which one of these features would be the best to capture sunrise and sunset.

Scenic pictures involving water during the day in St. John, St.Thomas and St. Maarten. As well as landmarks.

 

Thanks for you help inadvance.

I would us the no flash setting for sunrise, sunset and scenery. The red-eye reduction would be when you are taking a picture of a person indoors. Fill flash is used when the object you are taking a picture of is lighted from the back which would make it look dark. By using fill flash you light up the side facing you and the camera also takes in to account the light of the day at that time. Generally in night portrait and night landscape the camera automatically turns off the flash. I hope this helps you.

[zackiedawg]

Basic description of the modes are as follows:

 

red-eye reduction - when a flash is used to take a portrait of a person or animal who is fairly close to the camera, the flash will reflect off the reflective surface inside the eye and cause the eye to glow a red or white in the pupil...making them look like a demon. The idea of the 'red-eye reduction' is to have the camera briefly strobe the flash a few times before the picture is taken, which causes the person's iris to close so that the reflection cannot be seen when the real flash goes off and the picture is taken. You may still get some reflection, but it can be reduced. The farther the flash is from the lens, the less of a red-eye effect the camera will have - because the flash is coming in from a different angle than the lens is seeing and therefore the reflection isn't picked up. A trick to portrait photography is to not shoot the flash directly into the subject's face, which is why more professional cameras and flash units have a flash that can be angled up to the ceiling. This is called 'bounce flash', which sends the flash up to the roof, then back down onto the subject from above where the lens will not pick up any reflection in the eye.

 

fill flash - This is a flash used during normal daylight or well-lit indoor shots that normally wouldn't require any flash - it is used to light up any areas that are in shadow such as under counters, behind a cast shadow from an object, in a tunnel or recess, etc. Even a portrait of a person wearing a baseball cap in the middle of the afternoon can require fill flash...without it, their eyes will be shadowed by the bill of the cap.

 

night portrait - This will allow the camera to perform in normal night photography situations which require slow shutters to pick up any ambient light, but still use the flash to highlight a foreground subject. Any time a camera takes a slow shutter shot, you should put the camera on a tripod or flat surface, and not move it at all...the shutter will have to stay open for a few seconds or more, and even minor handshake or vibration will cause your photo to be a blur. City lights at night canbe nice and bright with slow shutter...but a person standing in front of them would be a dark shadow. That's where night 'portrait' mode comes in...it still takes the slow shutter shot, but also clicks the flash so the foreground is lit up.

 

Here are some examples...

 

Fill Flash:

 

The goal: When shooting in daylight and normal good lighting conditions, sometimes areas in the foreground may fall into shadow. For example, the dashboard display of the car was in complete shade because of the binnacle, and the camera would have not been able to pick up any detail at all inside the car or dash. By using a forced flash to 'fill' the shadow areas with light, you can still see the same scene outside the windshield, but the dash is lit up too. Without using a fill flash, it would have been blacked out.

 

Shooting into sunset without flash:

 

 

The goal: When shooting a sunset, sometimes it is more dramatic to not focus on any elements in the foreground, but still use their shapes. For example, the tree above looked interesting, but you don't necessarily want to see it all lit up, seeing the bark and grass on the ground, and the road going past. By not using any flash, and metering the camera off the sunset in the background, all of the foreground subjects just become silhouettes...no detail, all shadow.

 

Using flash with a sunset:

 

 

The Goal: Sometimes you want those deeper, exotic skies to be correctly metered, but you don't want the foreground subject to be in silhouette. Maybe it is a friend posing in front of the sunset...maybe a subject you are trying to show. If you meter the camera off that subject, the sunset behind will become extremely bright and wash out..no colors, just white bright areas. But if you meter off the sunset for the gorgeous colors and contrast, the foreground becomes a silhouette again. That's where the flash comes in, to light up that foreground subject, but still capture the proper sunset colors behind. The house above is brightly lit from the flash...while the sky remains dramatic, contrasty and colored. This would be the "night portrait" mode on your camera...it will keep the shutter open and shoot more slowly to capture deeper color and light from the background, while using the flash to capture the foreground. You can even use this setting at night...just keep the camera on a tripod or wall and ask your subject not to move for 3-4 seconds after the flash goes off, so the camera can complete the slow shutter shot.

[marieadela]

Thank you for all your help