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BY MICHAEL HUDDLESTON

Slow sync flash mode provides what photographers refer to as vista (atmospheric exposure). Vista is the photograph’s ability to give a more dimensional appearance capturing foreground and background details. Most of us have been conditioned to expect the following results our compact digital cameras give us in low light situations when we use flash:

• Classic underexposed backgrounds
• Harsh cold lighting

Nearly all cameras offer a slow sync flash mode. Slow sync, as its name implies, combines long exposure (determined by the brightness of the scene) with a burst of flash. The effect is to combine a slightly blurred and a completely sharp image into a single photo. It can be used in bright light or at night (in which case make sure you hold the camera still to avoid too much camera shake) and the results can be truly eye-catching.

The main advantage of slow sync mode is that it avoids most of the disadvantages of shooting with flash alone: black backgrounds at night; harsh, sterile lighting; and cold colors. It also allows you to experiment with motion in your photos without getting a completely blurred mess.

Slow sync mode allows the camera’s sensor to record the ambient light — including any blurred movement — along with the moment frozen by the firing of the flash. When people realize how slow sync mode can raise the quality of their low light flash pictures, it becomes the preferred the flash mode.

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Michael Huddleston publishes the Digital Camera University website.