Wendy here posting for TanyaH666! 
Hey everyone!
Henriette is in the process of moving so I get the pleasure of hosting this challenge for the month! I looked back through all the past challenges to see what fun stuff has already been done and what tips and techniques have been given, to try and find something that hasn’t been covered yet.
So this month we are gonna talk about using your camera’s flash! I know personally, that most of the time I won’t even bring my camera out at night because I hate the way pictures look with the flash.
I was lucky enough to get an external flash for my camera this year and it has really helped out my nighttime shots. But for those of you that have Point & Shoot camera’s, getting those great night shots is a bit more tricky. But it can be done =)
I found an article with some awesome tips for P&S camera owners! If you have a SLR camera and don’t find the article below useful, then check out this article: Flash Photography.
From an article by David Pogue
Point-and-shoot cameras: 3 useful tips
Tip#1 – No Flash! – This might be a personal preference, but I find when you use flash when taking the photo in a dark/dim place, the light from the flash is usually too strong which makes the whole photo look artificial. The simplest solution is to try and brighten up the place – turn on a light, open the curtains etc. Lighting is quite important in taking a good photo, so the more flexible you can be with your lighting the better.
Another alternative is to cover your camera’s flash with a piece of paper/tissue. This somewhat subdues the flash while still providing a source of light. I’ve only tried this a couple of times and overall it worked quite well. Of course, you can always take two photos, one with the flash and one without – that way you will have both alternatives and you can pick the best one.
Tip #2 – Night Photos – Probably one of the hardest times to take a nice photo with a normal point-and-shoot camera is at night, especially outdoors since you can’t just flick the light on. I’ve found to take decent photos at night you really need to just place your camera on a stable surface, use the timer and have a longer exposure.
How do you change the exposure I hear you ask. Well, most modern point-and-shoot cameras have preset Scenes or Modes (eg. portrait, night, fireworks etc). Anything that is for night/dark conditions will generally have slower shutter speeds, which means longer exposure time, which means your camera will “soak up” more surrounding light and give you a sharper/clearer photo. Since your camera will sit there for a couple of seconds “soaking up” the surrounding light you need to make sure that your camera does not move at all – thus the timer trick. You may have to play around with the different night modes on your camera to get something nice. I have taken gorgeous shots of both the Sydney Opera House and The Museum of Contemporary Art at night without the flash. Both taken using my point-and-shoot camera set on “Fireworks” mode with the slowest shutter speed possible (The normal night mode just didn’t let in enough light resulting the photos being quite dark).
Tip #3 – Focus and Trick Your Camera – Every now and then you might want to trick your camera into letting in more or less light than what it would automatically do. For all digital camera’s I’ve seen/used, when you half press the shutter-release button the camera will focus on the frame you have chosen – generally there will be some sort of feedback that it has found the focus (maybe something displayed on the screen or a beep).
Once the camera has found the focus, it will calculate all the required settings for that particular frame. Relying on this, if you want your camera to soak up more light, first focus (half press the button) on something darker than your subject (preferably similar distance away), then move your camera back to what you really want to take, then take the shot.
This works because when you initially focus on something darker, your camera will think it will need bit more light to take a clear shot, so when you go back to your intended subject (which is brighter than the initially focused subject) your camera will let in more light than usual since it still has the “let in more light for dark object” setting from your initial focus.
Go ahead and try to use any or all of these tips to get a great night shot!
Please read the posting rules too, especially about posting in the right gallery, thank you!!
1. Upload your photo (and LO if you have one) to the appropriate gallery, then please link it back to the challenge in the forum
2. Just one entry per person will be eligible for a point, one extra point can be earned for doing a LO with the picture and if you win the challenge you also gain one extra point
3. The pictures must be especially made for this months challenge
4. No double dipping with other challenges please
