Use the ‘fill flash’ for outdoor photography
When taking portrait shots outside the temptation is to leave the lighting up to Mother Nature, as after all it’s the original and the best lighting source. However that’s not necessarily the best way to light your outdoor photos. Instead, you should use a manual flash on your camera to ‘fill’ your subject with light, ensuring that you don’t lose any features to the often-harsh natural light.
Fill flash is available on all of the best digital cameras. On some cameras it is known as the ‘mode’. It’s particularly useful when taking wedding photos outdoors so that the sun doesn’t cause you to lose detail in your pictures.
When you utilise the ‘fill flash’ the camera automatically adjusts the amount of light required for the flash to compensate for the amount of light in the background of your subject. This ensures that the natural light doesn’t silhouette your subject. The outcome is a much better balanced image, and an overall more professional effect.
One thing to note though is that generally the range of the flash is no more that around ten feet, so ensure that you are not out of effective range when taking your photos.
