How Does a Camera Flash Works?

Series Summary

Photography is the art of making pictures by exposing film or another medium to a timed flash of light. The basic equipment used for photography includes a digital or mechanical camera equipped with a flash, film or a memory card. Mastering the art of photography is a technical and challenging experience. One has to learn how to focus the lens, control the aperture of the lens, filter the light and understand the importance of the focal length and duration of the exposure. In this free video series on photography, a world-class photographer discusses a few basics of the art form. Get information about the necessary equipment required to take, develop and print photographs, and discover the different types of lens filters, camera flashes and lenses. Find out how to use the aperture to create different depths-of-field, and find the answers to many common photography questions. Let a successful photographer illustrate a few of the finer points of photography.

Video Transcript

"Hello, I'm Reg Wilkins and I'm going to be speaking about flash in photography. A flash is a device used in photography that produces an instantaneous flash of artificial light. Flashes can be used for a variety of reasons. For example, quickly moving objects, creating a different temperature light, but mostly used to illuminate things that do not have enough available light to adequately expose the pho...the photograph. Vast majority of flash units today are electronic, having evolved from single use flash bulbs. In lower-end consumer photography, flash units are commonly built directly into the camera, whilst higher end cameras allow separate flash units to be mounted on a bracket, often called a hot shoe. In professional studio photography, flashes often take the form of large stand alone units, or studio strobes is their name. And these are powered by either special battery packs or commonly directed to the mains, or synchronized with cameras from either a flash, synchronization cable, a radio transmitter, or light triggered meaning that only one flash unit needs to be synchronized with a camera, which in turn triggers thee other units."