Our current camera flashes so brightly that almost anything within 8 feet or so gets washed out. Are there any cameras that automatically adjust the intensity of the flash according to the distance to the subject?
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What you’re looking for is a camera with through-the-lens (TTL) flash metering, which essentially measures how much light the flash has shed on your subject, and cuts off the flash when the picture is properly exposed.
Every digital SLR will have this feature, and high-end “prosumer” cameras also. I’m not so familiar with cheaper point-and-shoot models, although i think quite a few of them have some sort of automatic TTL flash metering.
Of course, having TTL flash metering is one thing, but how well it works is another. Like many things, the more you spend on your camera, the better it is likely to be, and the better the features are likely to work. Also, the range and coverage of the flash itself will make a difference; a large powerful off-camera flash gun will generally do a much better job than a small on-camera flash.
My Minolta 7Hi, which is now almost 4 years old and probably due for replacement, was near the top of the “prosumer” market when i bought it; not as good as an SLR, but better than most point-and-shoot models, with more sophisticated manual controls. It has TTL flash metering but, like with your camera, details that are very close to the camera often get washed out. This is particularly noticeable when the picture contains both very near as well as more distant objects. The problem is that, with a single on-camera flash, you can only have a single level of flash output, and the camera has to try and decide whether you want to illuminate the near stuff or the far stuff properly. Most of the time, my camera seems to choose the near stuff.
It’s possible to override this tendency if your camera has manual controls. If i don’t want the near stuff over-illuminated, i will often dial down my camera’s flash exposure by a half-stop or more. Of course, if you have a fully auto camera this won’t be possible. One workaround is to try and have all of your main subjects an equal distance from the camera. So, for example, try not to take a picture from one end of a long table, or the people near you will be overexposed, while the people at the other end will probably be in the dark.
I think you’d have to jump into the DSLR range before that happens. I know that on my DSLR I can manually adjust the flash exposure, I’m not sure off the top of my head of it can do it automatically. but I don’t think it does. What camera do you have? The other options would be to stop down the aprature or speed up the shutter.
I’m fairly certain that even most point and shoots have automatic flash capabilities. I know all the ones I’ve had (for example, the Canon SD700) definitely have a pre-flash (not for red-eye reduction) that is used to calculate flash exposure. I’d be very surprised if a large amount of point and shoots out there have fixed flash power.
One work around for a fixed-power flash camera would be to Scotch-tape tracing paper or something similar in front of the flash to effectively stop down the flash.
Could you give us the make and model of the camera? I’d be very surprised if any moderately recent camera didn’t do some sort of flash exposure metering (which is pretty much what you want).
A temporary solution might be to diffuse the flash so that the light is spread out more evenly and does not fire straight forward. A useful and very inexpensive method of doing this is to tape some bubble wrap over the flash. Each little bubble then acts as a lens to spread the light out. This should result in more even lighting where the flash falls. You can also buy ready-made diffusers, but I’ve found the home-made solution to work pretty well.
Another possibility is to use a white card to bounce the flash towards the ceiling so that the subjects are not directly hit by the flash light, but rather by light bounced off the ceiling. This also results in more even illumination. Some experimentation is needed to get good results, but I’ve found this to be useful, although perhaps because of the weak flashes found on point-and-shoot cameras, less easy to manage than simple diffusion.
Most P&S won’t do what you want automatically. The more advanced cameras will allow you to set the flash intensity manually, and it’s pretty easy to set correctly once you play around with it. But in general, until you get to a hot shoe and an external flash that you can bounce you’ll get washed out shots.
You can make your own flash diffuser with a piece of white paper and some tape. It works surprisingly well for $.15 of supplies.
Not true.
All modern point-and-shoots do flash metering.
And they all do a pretty lousy job of it; at least the ones I’ve used. Which is why adjusting the flash manually seems to do a much better job. On my S3 for example, unless I lower the flash intensity manually I get overexposed faces no matter how I set the metering. If there are settings I’m not taking advantage of (and there may well be) I’d love to know more, but my experience is that the camera tends to overexpose the subject if left to itself to decide.
Yes, that’s true.
The problem is, most PS cameras have a pretty simplistic flash metering system, and an averaging meter is going to overexpose faces against a dark background.
All but the very cheapest no-name digital cameras can adjust their flash exposure. Take a flash picture in a dark room and one in a lit room. If the camera flash re-charges faster after taking the picture in the lit room, than it has adjusted its output power level. The other way a camera can set flash exposure is to adjust the aperture. Both methods are equivalent (halving the flash power will give the same exposure as closing the aperture one stop), but adjusting power + adjusting the aperture gives more options.
The more significant problem is the harsh direct light from the flash, close to the optical axis. SLRs with pop-up flashes look better because the larger SLR body places the flash a bit further from the optical axis, but it’s still not very flattering. If your subject’s face is light-colored, smooth, or oily a lot of the incident light from the flash will tend to be reflected back to the camera as well.
You can try taping some tissue paper over the flash to further cut the output, but it’s still going to be harsh because the tiny flash window is essentially a point light source.
Should have given a bit more detail. We are not camera buffs but we have 8 kids so the camera gets a fair amount of use, especially around Thanksgiving - Christmas. The current one is a fairly aged Cannon A-510.
I’m thinking to get a new one for VeryCoolSpouse for a gift.
Hmm…The Canon A510 has pretty good reviews for its flash exposure, from what I’ve seen online. I had an older version of that camera and it was fine. It has three flash settings: Auto, On (Forced), and Off. Is it possible you don’t have it set to Auto?
Auto just means that the camera flashes when it detects that it needs it. It doesn’t affect the metering, which is the problem here.
:smack: Duh. I should have known that since the SD700 has exactly the same settings, in addition to a few others.
missed the edit window above:
:smack: Duh. I should have known that since the SD700 and the old SD20 has exactly the same settings, in addition to a few others. I’ve used both cameras with close subjects and have never had the problem of the foreground getting blown out badly. Slow sync mode helps, although I don’t know if that particular camera has it. The symbol is a silhouette of a person with a star over the shoulder. Depending on the situation, that mode will expose the background (so it’s not black) and light the foreground with the flash. If the foreground is already lit somewhat, you may get a ghost effect, where the foreground exposure is doubled from the flash and the ambient light.
One thing you could do on most P&S digitals these days is dial the ISO equivalence down a couple of stops.
As in, the camera will probably automatically pick something like ISO400 and a certain aperture automatically with flash, but you can override the ISO setting and set it back to 200 or even 100, which might reduce your flash washout problem.
Another thing you can do is try setting the exposure compensation. I looked online and it seems the A510 allows you to manually dial up and down the exposure. This should affect the flash exposure as well.
I’m also scratching my head about the flash on that camera blowing things out that badly. As far as I could tell, the main complaint online about the camera is that the flash is underpowered and requires positive exposure compensation. I don’t know how smart the camera is, but sometimes having the focus point incorrectly set will blow out the foreground. It does seem the camera takes the focus point into consideration when using the default metering mode, so if you don’t properly set focus (pressing halfway down before making the image), this may be the source of some problems.