How to Use a Fill Flash

You can dramatically improve the quality of your photographs by using a fill flash. It is simple, convenient and probably already available on your camera. A fill flash brightens elements in your photographs that would otherwise be dark.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Camera with a flash

How to Use a Fill Flash

1. Understand what a fill flash is. You use a fill flash to lighten dark areas of photographs even if bright lighting already exists. Cameras with automatic settings will only flash if they detect a lack of light. The problem with that is there are often shadows or other lighting conditions that obscure your subjects despite bright light in the rest of the picture. A fill flash lights up those dark areas.

2. Locate the fill flash on your camera. Look for the button marked by a lightning bolt with an arrow at the bottom. This adjusts your flash setting. Some cameras require you to be in manual mode before you manipulate the flash. Push the flash setting button until you see the lightning bolt symbol by itself. This tells the camera to flash every photo regardless of the lighting conditions.

3. Use a fill flash when you take photos of people obscured by shadows. This is common on a bright day when the sun is directly overhead or if your subjects are wearing hats. It also happens when the light source is to the side or there are other objects like trees casting shadows. Use a fill flash to brighten their faces.

4. Consider a fill flash when there are multiple conflicting light sources. This is common indoors when there are scattered bright lights. This creates distracting double and triple shadows around your subject. Use a fill flash to remove these distractions.

5. Experiment with a fill flash in back-light conditions. If the light source is behind the subject, then the subject will be dark. The brighter the light, the darker your subject. Use a fill flash to brighten your subject while still seeing the light background. This is handy when you are taking photos of people standing in front of a sunset.

Tips & Warnings

• Try taking photographs both with and without a fill flash to see the difference.

• When you use a fill flash, the flash goes off for every picture. This will drain your camera battery quickly. Be sure to have spare batteries available.

• A fill flash may slow down your camera while it recharges for the next flash.