Cameras Gone Wild

One of my biggest pet peeves in photography is the unnecessary use of flash. I use the flash on my camera maybe 10% of the time and really only in snapshot situations. I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies this afternoon, and decided to snap a couple shots as they were cooling on a tea towel. I decided to try out the "flower" setting on my camera, since I wanted a nice close-up. After the first shot, I remembered why I never use the flower setting, I can't disable the flash. I changed the setting back to its usual "no flash" and got the photograph I wanted.

Flash 10/13/09

No Flash 10/13/09

The first photograph is fine, we can tell its a cookie. But then compare it to the second photograph and you can see how the flash from my camera flattened the image and got rid of the detail. The soft, natural light coming through my kitchen windows enhanced the texture of the cookies and the towel.

Photography is, at its core, capturing light. That is why I think lighting is the number one thing that can make or break your photograph. In beginning photography class, we had an assignment called "light." The task was to take common objects and make them aesthetically pleasing through the use of light and that project produced some of the most beautiful photographs of the semester. Do a little experimenting, pretend you're in a museum or at a play and turn that flash off. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Links:
Strobist
Kodak's New Sensor May Eliminate Flash