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BY MARIA MARKELLA

You have to take full control of your digital camera’s flash. Why? Because digital cameras and their built-in software are pre-programmed and make a few assumptions.

For example: There are sensors inside your camera that measure the percentage of illumination in the scene at which your camera points. If the sensors measure low illumination then your flash will fire. That is because your camera is pre-programmed with the assumption that flash will improve the photograph in a low-illumination environment. On the other hand in a high-illumination environment the flash will not fire because the camera will assume it’s not necessary. After all it’s dark out there!

The issue with these assumptions is that there are certain situations when you want an opposite result..

For example there are times when you want to shoot the perfect photograph in a low-illumination environment without using the flash, e.g., when you are in a dark room with a candle burning and no other light sources. If that’s the case you need to be really steady for the photograph to be sharp. You may want to use a tripod to achieve better results. If you do it right you will have a perfect photograph with beautiful warm orange/red colors.

Remember that the straight light coming from the flash gives a cold commercial look to your photographs. That could be OK in some cases but not in all. You should decide whether to use flash, not your camera.

But what happens when working in bright light, high-illumination environments?

Then, the flash will not fire! Of course that saves battery-power, but what are the results? You definitely don’t want to lose in quality right?

Imagine that you want to take a person wearing a hat and the sun is overhead in the sky shining. Then you will notice that the person’s face will be in dark shadow because of the hat! But even if there’s no hat, you will usually see shadows under the chin or under the person’s eyes. So what you should do is fill those small shadows with light using your camera’s flash!

Again, YOU should decide whether to use flash or not, and not your camera. YOU should take control of your camera’s flash.

Here are five basic flash settings for you to play with:

Setting #1: Automatic Flash

This is where your camera is pre-programmed to make assumptions depending on the level of the environment illumination.

Setting#2: Automatic Flash with Eye Reduction

Again, the camera uses its software to determine when the flash will fire, but there’s also some type of red eye filters to reduce the red eye effect.

You camera will probably automatically select, by default, one of the above two settings. I recommend that you don’t use either. As I said before, YOU should be decide whether to use flash or not. Furthermore, eye reduction filters don’t always do a good job and will likely confuse your subjects in most cases.

I recommend to make use of the following settings depending on the scene and subject you’re trying to shoot.

Setting #3: Flash Always

With this setting enabled your flash will fire in all cases. You may want to choose this setting when you want to fill small shadowed areas with light.

Setting #4: Flash Disabled

Your flash will not fire no matter how illuminated or not the environment or the scene is. Make use of this setting when you want to shoot in a low-illuminated environment, e.g., a dark room with a candle burning.

Just remember that in a low-illumination environment you have to be really steady.

Setting #5: Slow Shutter Flash

This is a very underestimated setting and the least used. If you choose this setting your flash will fire occasionally but the shutter will remain open for a longer time than usual. This will allow you to capture the subject illuminated by the flash, but it will also allow other lighting sources (like a candle’s light) to record themselves.

This setting is perfect if there is high illumination on the background, while in front of the subject there’s certain darkness. For example, when you want to shoot a person in front of a casino at night.

Look at your camera’s manual for more information on these settings. They are really important.

Maria Markella writes for the Digital Star Products site, where you can learn more about using your camera’s flash in the Perfect Digital Photography Secrets Manual.