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#1
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flash too bright with digital cameras?
I have a Canon A520 and a Sony DSC H1. When shooting
indoors, both cameras invariably shoot too bright - the flash is too much for the setting. The Sony has a setting for lowering the flash but even with that set, many indoor photos are overexposed he because of the flash. And this is often true for the Canon as well. Is there a trick? A way around this? Is there another setting one could use to compensate somehow? I have a Nikon film camera with a built in flash and it never creates this problem. And yet, I've seen several digitals do so. Help? TIA Louise |
#2
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flash too bright with digital cameras?
"louise" wrote in message
... I have a Canon A520 and a Sony DSC H1. When shooting indoors, both cameras invariably shoot too bright - the flash is too much for the setting. The Sony has a setting for lowering the flash but even with that set, many indoor photos are overexposed he because of the flash. And this is often true for the Canon as well. Is there a trick? A way around this? Is there another setting one could use to compensate somehow? Help? Louise Could the flash control be separate and lower down the menu? It is with my Coolpix 4500 - almost the last item to get to, but effective when changed. -- M Stewart Milton Keynes, UK -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com |
#3
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flash too bright with digital cameras?
I frequently have to reduce the exposure setting by 1 or 1.5 stops,
especially with close-ups. The other alternative is to put a piece of thin white fabric over the flash to soften and diffuse it? "louise" wrote in message ... I have a Canon A520 and a Sony DSC H1. When shooting indoors, both cameras invariably shoot too bright - the flash is too much for the setting. |
#4
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flash too bright with digital cameras?
A thought-- With my C8080, and an FL 36, it's obvious that the exposure
metering mode has a great deal to do with the success of flash exposure. Do you know what metering mode is used? (such as spot or average) "Steph" wrote in message ... I frequently have to reduce the exposure setting by 1 or 1.5 stops, especially with close-ups. The other alternative is to put a piece of thin white fabric over the flash to soften and diffuse it? "louise" wrote in message ... I have a Canon A520 and a Sony DSC H1. When shooting indoors, both cameras invariably shoot too bright - the flash is too much for the setting. |
#5
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flash too bright with digital cameras?
louise wrote:
I have a Canon A520 and a Sony DSC H1. When shooting indoors, both cameras invariably shoot too bright - the flash is too much for the setting. The Sony has a setting for lowering the flash but even with that set, many indoor photos are overexposed he because of the flash. And this is often true for the Canon as well. Is there a trick? A way around this? Is there another setting one could use to compensate somehow? If the subject is darker than the exposure systems reference point (somewhere around 12 - 18% grey), then the system will tend to flash longer to get a 12 - 18 % grey exposure. When shooting dark subjects set the flash (or exposure comp) to a -ve value (-1 to -1.5 or even -2). (Assumes the camera has exp. compensation ... many do). When shooting very light subjects do the opposite. Cheers, Alan -- -- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm -- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm -- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin -- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch. |
#6
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flash too bright with digital cameras?
Chuck wrote:
A thought-- With my C8080, and an FL 36, it's obvious that the exposure metering mode has a great deal to do with the success of flash exposure. Do you know what metering mode is used? (such as spot or average) "Steph" wrote in message ... I frequently have to reduce the exposure setting by 1 or 1.5 stops, especially with close-ups. The other alternative is to put a piece of thin white fabric over the flash to soften and diffuse it? "louise" wrote in message ... I have a Canon A520 and a Sony DSC H1. When shooting indoors, both cameras invariably shoot too bright - the flash is too much for the setting. usually it's average - would you suggest trying spot? Louise |
#7
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flash too bright with digital cameras?
I got a Canon A-630 this week, and seem to have the same problem.
Any pictures taken "close up in Auto mode" look overly bright. In fact, people in those pictures look like those models in wax museums louise wrote: Chuck wrote: A thought-- With my C8080, and an FL 36, it's obvious that the exposure metering mode has a great deal to do with the success of flash exposure. Do you know what metering mode is used? (such as spot or average) "Steph" wrote in message ... I frequently have to reduce the exposure setting by 1 or 1.5 stops, especially with close-ups. The other alternative is to put a piece of thin white fabric over the flash to soften and diffuse it? "louise" wrote in message ... I have a Canon A520 and a Sony DSC H1. When shooting indoors, both cameras invariably shoot too bright - the flash is too much for the setting. usually it's average - would you suggest trying spot? Louise |
#8
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flash too bright with digital cameras?
"a630 user" wrote in message
oups.com... I got a Canon A-630 this week, and seem to have the same problem. Any pictures taken "close up in Auto mode" look overly bright. In fact, people in those pictures look like those models in wax museums louise wrote: Chuck wrote: A thought-- With my C8080, and an FL 36, it's obvious that the exposure metering mode has a great deal to do with the success of flash exposure. Do you know what metering mode is used? (such as spot or average) "Steph" wrote in message ... I frequently have to reduce the exposure setting by 1 or 1.5 stops, especially with close-ups. The other alternative is to put a piece of thin white fabric over the flash to soften and diffuse it? "louise" wrote in message ... I have a Canon A520 and a Sony DSC H1. When shooting indoors, both cameras invariably shoot too bright - the flash is too much for the setting. usually it's average - would you suggest trying spot? Louise With a few digicams I've owned/used, the problem is not so much overexposure more that the white balance is uncorrected for the blue/white flash light. This totally washes out skin tones, giving the waxworks look. If it cannot be corrected for with the camera's white balance options (some can, some can't) then the only fix is to cover the flash with a compensating orange transparent filter. If you get the filter colour right then this is a really good fix. I've used a clear inkjet label with an orange colour printed on it, with another clear label over it for protection. RGB values of 255,228,189 worked very well on one camera I had but it will depend on the printer/flash & camera combination as to what works in practice. |
#9
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flash too bright with digital cameras?
On 26 Dec 2006 22:01:11 -0800, a630 user wrote:
I got a Canon A-630 this week, and seem to have the same problem. Any pictures taken "close up in Auto mode" look overly bright. In fact, people in those pictures look like those models in wax museums As Chuck hinted - the metering mode may be responsible. Assuming that the A630 is similar to the A620, in Auto mode, Evaluative metering is used, which probably gives good results if the subject(s) fill the frame. But if not, the background will also be used to calculate exposure. Since it's farther away, the flash will pump out more light, overexposing near objects. The solution is to use something other than Auto Mode, such as P, Tv, Av or M, which will allow you to select Center Weighted Average or Spot. I tried shooting a small object centered in the frame and with Evaluative metering the subject was grossly overexposed. Using CWA or Spot metering allowed the subject to get a decent exposure, but the background was naturally much more underexposed. That's to be expected when a single flash is used in dim lighting conditions. Whether it's desirable or not depends on the effect you're trying to get, and adding additional flashes or other lights isn't the only way to brighten the background. The A630 has a Night Scene mode that uses the flash with a slower shutter speed to help brighten the background. Unfortunately, the Night Scene mode forces the use of Evaluative metering which can again overexpose close subjects, but you can get the same effect using Tv or M mode to slow the shutter speed if Night Scene mode doesn't produce the best exposure. |
#10
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flash too bright with digital cameras?
On Wed, 27 Dec 2006 02:34:40 -0500, ASAAR wrote:
On 26 Dec 2006 22:01:11 -0800, a630 user wrote: I got a Canon A-630 this week, and seem to have the same problem. Any pictures taken "close up in Auto mode" look overly bright. In fact, people in those pictures look like those models in wax museums As Chuck hinted - the metering mode may be responsible. Assuming that the A630 is similar to the A620, in Auto mode, Evaluative metering is used, which probably gives good results if the subject(s) fill the frame. But if not, the background will also be used to calculate exposure. Since it's farther away, the flash will pump out more light, overexposing near objects. The solution is to use something other than Auto Mode, such as P, Tv, Av or M, which will allow you to select Center Weighted Average or Spot. I tried shooting a small object centered in the frame and with Evaluative metering the subject was grossly overexposed. Using CWA or Spot metering allowed the subject to get a decent exposure, but the background was naturally much more underexposed. That's to be expected when a single flash is used in dim lighting conditions. Whether it's desirable or not depends on the effect you're trying to get, and adding additional flashes or other lights isn't the only way to brighten the background. The A630 has a Night Scene mode that uses the flash with a slower shutter speed to help brighten the background. Unfortunately, the Night Scene mode forces the use of Evaluative metering which can again overexpose close subjects, but you can get the same effect using Tv or M mode to slow the shutter speed if Night Scene mode doesn't produce the best exposure. 'way back when I had an Olympus 2000 I had that problem and the quick fix I used was a small piece of black electrical tape place over half the flash window. It worked to my satisfaction. Not hi-tech but it worked. |
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