Your camera’s built in flash is very handy. In the auto setting, the camera can usually work out when a scene needs a flash and fires it for you. The camera doesn’t always ‘get it right’ though, so sometimes it’s better to set your camera to a specific flash mode.

Auto Flash Mode

In Auto mode, the flash fires whenever the camera senses that the light is too dim to take without additional light. When there’s enough light, the flash won’t fire.

Red Eye Reduction Mode
This mode helps to reduce the red eye effect that happens when the flash is too close to the lens, and the subject’s pupils are wide open. The light from the flash enters the eyes, bounces off the red retina and comes back into the camera giving that annoying red eye look.

What the Red Eye Reduction flash does is shine a light on the subject before the shot is taken to close the pupils a bit. This means less light gets into the eyes and back to the camera, and thus reduces the red eye effect. The pre-flash comes as either a series of quick flashes, or a bright light that lingers for a few seconds.

So if you’re taking photos at night, and have your subjects looking directly at the camera then make sure you turn on the Red Eye Reduction mode. Warn your subject first too - the pre flashes can be a bit disconcerting if people aren’t expecting them, and they tend to look away (which ruins the shot).

Note that Red Eye Reduction does not eliminate the red eye, but just reduces it. The best way to eliminate it is to either move your flash further away from the lens, or swivel the flash so it bounces off a white wall or ceiling before reaching your subject.

Fill Flash

Use Fill Flash for times when there is ample light, but you’d like to ‘fill in’ any shadows or dark spots that could be on the subject. It’s perfect when you have your subject’s back facing the sun. The surrounding scene will be well lit, but your subject’s face will be in shadow and relatively dark. Firing the fill flash will eliminate most of this.

Slow Sync Flash
Usually when the flash fires, the camera also increases the shutter speed. The flash gives off such bright light, that you only need a split second expo sure to capture the image. What Slow Sync flash does is fire the flash, but keeps the shutter open for longer.

When would this be useful? When you want to show a low light background as well as your foreground subject in the image. The foreground subject is lit by the flash, and the background is then captured by the long exposure time. Make sure you keep your camera and everything in your image still while the shutter is open or you’ll get a blurry image, special effects like this example image.

No Flash

This will disable the flash on your camera. This mode is most useful when you’re in a situation where you can’t use a flash (like concerts or museums) but still want to take an image. Be careful when using this mode, as the camera will extend the shutter time to compensate for the lower light. You might also need a tripod to steady the camera while the shutter is open.

Other Flash Types

More advanced flash types include:

Rear Curtain Sync - fires the flash just before the shutter closes (rather than just after it opens)
Repeating or Strobe - fires rapidly several times during the one shot. Gives you a moving subject frozen a number of times in the frame.
Flash EV compensation - allows you to modify the strength of your flash. Only a few consumer cameras have this feature. Another way to reduce your flash intensity is to place some translucent paper over the flash.

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