Mastering Fill-In Flash

Sometimes, what seems like the simplest technique can be the hardest to get right. Fill-in flash is commonly used when the subject is backlit and there's large exposure difference between the subject and the background. In order to expose an image evenly, a burst of flash can be used to balance things up, illuminating the subject against the brightly lit background. It's possible to use a pop-up flash for this technique, but you'll risk the dreaded ‘red-eye’ effect if you're shooting people, and the results can be quite harsh.

Using a separate flashgun offers you several advantages. Firstly, it has a much larger and more controllable power output, which means that it can illuminate subjects that are more than a few metres away. Secondly, it can be more easily bounced and diffused by swivelling and pointing the head at a wall or similar surface, so the light is softened. You can also use a bracket to position the flashgun at the side of the camera. Off-camera use of a flash can produce a more natural-looking effect and be used extremely creatively!

The ‘Red-eye’ effect occurs when reflected light from the back of the eye is captured on the cameras CCD. This usually happens when an in-camera flash is used, because it's positioned too close to the lens. The most effective way to avoid the dreaded red eye is to use an external Speed-lite that's positioned away from your lens. Using your camera's hotshoe will give much better results. fixing it to a bracket by the side of your DSLR body, or holding it off camera using a cord, will give the best results, because the light won't have a straight path from the flash to the eye and straight back down the lens. However, this isn’t always possible, and not everybody has the money to go out and buy an external flash. So the next best thing is to use photo software to simply correct the problem. Almost all photo software will have this feature and its very simple to use. If you don’t have any photo software you can visit http://www.your-digital-photography.com/image-editing-software.html and download Picasa, a free photo software package.

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