Most cameras now have a built-in flash, but it’s something to use with care. Set onto auto, the camera will be popping a flash into just about everything, trying to produce a uniformly ‘normal’ picture every time, and that’s not the way forward for a creative photographer. However, the ‘fill-in’ flash works well in automatic to supplement ambient (existing) light. If you practise and study your camera manual you will be able to use it imaginatively as well as usefully.
Flashguns
As well as the built-in flashlight, the manufacturers all make separate dedicated flashguns. ‘Dedicated’ means that when they are connected to the hot shoe on the camera they can be controlled from it and work with the through-the-lens (TTL) automatic exposure. Check your manual for the maximum recommended shutter speed that will synchronize with your flash; you can use slower speeds, but if you exceed the maximum speed you will not get an image.
Flashguns have a very short flash duration which is so fast it will freeze almost any moving subject. They have more power than the built-in flash, and because they have their own battery power, they don’t drain the batteries of the camera. The swivel head can be angled to bounce light off walls or ceilings, which makes a lovely soft light – but be careful that the surface you are bouncing off is neutral, preferably white, or your flash will pick up the colours and cast them onto your subject.
There are many accessories such as diffusers, reflectors and colour filters available for flashguns. They become a really versatile and creative light source when you add an off-camera cable which connects the flashgun and the camera hot shoe, enabling you to light your subject from almost any direction (see pp.116-17), with the flash still dedicated to your camera’s automatic exposure.
This young horsewoman was too strongly side-lit by the sun. I set the camera to P (program) and the camera did a perfect fill-in flash. JG
Flash button
Hot shoe
Flashgun
To calculate the correct exposure for flash when using manual mode, you will need to get the guide number from the instruction manual for your particular flashgun and follow the instructions on how to calculate the f-number.
White balance
On a digital camera, white balance solves the problem of colour casts without the need for the filters that are used with film.
The white balance button is used to set the colour according to the light.
I made this portrait of a child in a Moroccan bazaar. I like the way the shade light has made the dirty white walls blue, which has blended with the colour of the child’s clothes. If I had used the shade setting on white balance this subtle blending of colours would have been lost. JG
This portrait of the actor Alan Bates in his dressing room would have been drained of its warm glow if I had shot it on incandescent mode or auto as it would have been corrected to neutral colour balance. JG
There is no such thing as a pure white in the outside world. A building that is painted white, for instance, will change colour during the day as the colour of the light bouncing off it changes; if blue light is hitting it, the wall will photograph as blue.
White balance, or WB, gives you options for correcting colour balance for a number of different light sources. Once the camera has established a neutral white all the colours in your picture will fall into place, and the colour cast that has been taken out of the white will also be removed from the colours. Many of the new camera models also include the facility to fine-tune the colour balance in the camera after you have taken the shot, which can also be done in Photoshop.
However, this book is not intended just to help you take technically correct pictures, but to show you how to make exciting ones. The danger of digital photography is that it always attempts to make things uniform, and this is most evident on the white balance mode; WB technology has been developed to make every colour picture you shoot look as if you have taken it in direct sunlight.
The end result of this is that you could end up with blandly normal pictures that lack the excitement that all the amazingly variable light sources provide us with.
This landscape was shot on a very overcast day. I liked the composition but not the colour, which was boringly grey. By setting the white balance to incandescent I was able to get a blue cast which gave it an early-morning feel. I then tried a shot on shade setting and that warmed it to look like evening light. GH
Although it’s important to understand the white balance mode and its functions, don’t allow it to commandeer your own assessment of light.
Auto
This automatically sets your camera to suit any lighting conditions, giving a fairly good neutral colour balance. However, if you just leave white balance set to auto all the time you are in danger of missing out on capturing the subtle beauty of different light conditions. When shooting in daylight, for example, try setting the white balance to the direct sunlight setting so you can capture the different light qualities that change throughout the day.
Incandescent
An ordinary household tungsten bulb gives incandescent light. It is much warmer (yellow/orange) than daylight and requires the camera to add blue to balance it back to neutral. The incandescent setting provides a more neutral colour balance than auto, which tends to be warmer.
Fluorescent
Use this setting when you are shooting in fluorescent light; it will achieve a much better colour balance than auto white balance succeeds in doing.
Direct sunlight
Like daylight-balanced colour film, this setting gives a natural colour balance in direct sunlight in the middle of the day.
Flash
Flash tends to be slightly cooler than daylight; this setting warms it up a little.
Cloudy
On overcast days the light is cooler. This setting warms it to match direct sunlight.
Shade
Light in the shade is much cooler than bright sunlight because it mainly comes from indirect blue sky light. This setting warms the light to match direct sunlight.
Preset
You can manually set the white balance to correct any light source to neutral. This is accomplished by photographing a grey or white surface in