Question about Flash Lighting...?

Question

I'm new to photography, and I am having a heck of a time learning the keys to good lighting indoors. I was at an anniversary party, and was fooling around with flash, and all it did is wash out my subjects and put way too much contrast between them and the background. Even when the background is only 4 feet away, it will be fairly dark, and the subject will be washed out with white.These were candid shots, so there was no pre-planned lighting. Also, even with the white balance adjusted, the photos seemed very... fluorescenty. It was hard to get any warmth out of them. The photos without flash were great, but with flash, they don't look good at all.

I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20. Its a great camera, but the flash seems so harsh and miscolors my subjects so bad. Is there any way I can change any of this?

Answer 1

Any time you have only one source of light from a small concentrated source (a bare flash) you will get high contrasts and dark shadows. If you're indoors your flash will overpower any other normal light sources in the room. It will be as if they didn't exist. With todays digital technology your good shots without a flash is understandable. As far as your subject being washed out it sounds like your flash gave too much light for the distance it was from the subject. Keep in mind that, to a point, that is something you can control. Your camera/flash is too close to the subject for the camera and it's meters to overcome. Without going into all the scientific small details there is a corelation between the speed of light and the speed of your cameras shutter (the part that opens and closes to allow the picture get in when you press the button) and your cameras ability to capture the image. I'm not familiar with your specific camera but from what I just looked up it should do fine with a few adjustments from you. The closer your flash is to the subject the greater the chances of the problems you mention. Back away about 12ft if you can and use the zoom feature to get as close as you want. Diffuse your flash (make it spread out quicker as it leaves the unit) by placing a piece of bathroom tissue (one ply) over it. This is easy to do and somewhat unnoticeable by those around you if you use transparent tape. Make some test shots before it really matters. This is something professionals do all the time. It may take 2 ply tissue...lol Keep in mind Indoor snapshot photography with one flash can be tricky and will never look like professional glamour pics. Just don't expect to get more than you give.

Answer 2

Try finding your white balance, and setting it down a few notches so that it doesn't try to make everything very bright... I'm not sure where the setting is on the Panasonic Lumix, but you should be able to set the native balance to something lower than what it's at (without changing the warmth or the colors in the pictures)

Also, when using flash it's a good idea to tape a coffee filter or a tissue in front of the flash - they are very harsh, and a diffusion filter makes the shadows less harsh.

You might not need to change the White Balance at all, if you use a coffee filter. Experiment a lot, in a lot of different conditions, so that you'll know what to do when taking pictures on the spot. Hope that helps!!

Answer 3

when you have plenty of light and conditions are suitable.The flash is the biggest solution to low light digital photography.But the flash can flatten out our images.this is especially true for flash that is built in on digital cameras.this can be avoided to a certain degree, depending on our subject and by watching how our light falls. A good way to combact the problem in low light can try using a higher ISO..That means the amount of sensitivity of light falling on our sensor.

Answer 4

Look for the external flash unit for this camera:

External flash DMW-FL28 $150 Get much better flash photos and less redeye

Also if your bracket for external flash allows use the bounce flash technique of pointing the flash upwards to redue wash out.

Other flash units will work externally also - I just happen to see that the vendor has one for it. I happen to like Sunpak flashes but they are not cheap.

Practice and have fun..

Answer 5

Also you can try the slow sych setting. You will have to hold the camera steady, though, to avoid blurring the background.

There is a technique called dragging the shutter, or using a slow shutter speed combined with a manual flash setting to allow ambient light to light the bg.

Answer 6

Yea i figured that the video was more then meets the eye..I like the video and I knew that it had some type of meaning to it...I thought that it had more to do with hip hop then what the person explained it as...but no matter I think that it was entertaining..Ppl are writing it off as stupid...just because its not the average in the club...which i might add that im as sssssssoooo tired of seeing...I glad that he's bringing this type of artistry back to the hip hop video...If u notice most of them t-pain akon ringtone rappers have the same themed videos in the club showing off or the im sooo hood from the hood rich videos with everybody standing around in it...etc yadda yadda...