[alaskayorkie]

Forgive me if you guys have discussed this before, but I recently had some good luck with bounce flashing and wanted to share the results. I'll write more about what bounce flashing is below, but here are the results.

1. First picture was made pointing the external flash toward the ceiling and setting the camera on full-automatic setting. The light is natural, there's no blurring or red-eye.

2. Second picture was an attempt to shoot without a flash altogether, on a manual setting. It was so dark that I had to shoot at about 1/15th of a second -- too slow to avoid blurring.

3. Third picture was flashed straight on with the flash that came with the camera. It's in focus, but the light is unnatural and there's a harsh shadow behind the subject. I also got some "red-eye".

Here's how I got the first shot:
For any of you with a camera that has a "hot shoe" -- a bracket mounted on top that allows you to connect a separate flash -- I'd highly suggest you try it out. Borrow a flash or go into a camera shop and ask them to demonstrate how it works.

One of the big benefits of an external flash is it often eliminates or reduces red-eye. Red is caused by the flash hitting the subject's eyes at a flat angle (for lack of a better term). Imagine shining a flashlight at a mirror. If you shine it directly at the mirror, you'll get the glare of the beam right back at you. But if you hit the mirror at an angle, the glare bounces a different direction. Same is true with the flash.

Admittedly, sometimes the hot shoe doesn't give you enough of an angle, so you'll still get red-eye. However, if you have a flash that allows you to turn the light straight up toward the ceiling, it will bounce off the ceiling, diffuse and hit the subject with a more natural light. If you have it set on "auto," your camera will determine what aperature you need for a good picture.