When my friend April e-mailed me recently to ask advice on purchasing a new camera, I gently nudged her toward my all-time favorite point-and-shoot, the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS. An earlier version of this camera is what I still use today when I don’t want to lug along my big camera. I get a lot of e-mails and calls looking for an informed opinion, and this camera is always my first pitch. I’m not shy to admit that I am bias toward Canon, but the SX10 has awesome image quality and easy-to-use advanced features all with the conveniences of a point-and-shoot. If you are in the market for a new camera, you should definitely check it out.
After a few e-mails back and forth, April sent me a message that said it was a done deal. She bought the camera. I should work in sales for Canon. During our trip to Michigan, April really broke in her new camera, and I offered my two cents here and there to help her along. One problem she kept running into was dark (underexposed) photos. This image of her husband and precious baby was one of them.
Now, I’m not an expert on the technical makings and innerworkings of a camera, but based on my experience, this was the problem: It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was setting on the water behind them creating dark shadows on their faces. On automatic settings, the camera reads the whole scene and balances the exposure based on what it sees. In this case, the bright water and sunset sky shooting rays straight at the lens. Those are not technical terms folks. Did I mention I am not an expert on the technical makings and innerworkings of a camera? Ok. Just making sure.
So I told April the above scenario and suggested she pop open her flash. (On other cameras this would probably be equivalent to setting your flash to ON instead of AUTO. Time to dust off that manual!) This was the result:
Much, much better, don’t you think? While using the flash during the day seems silly in theory, it helped April to brighten up the subject of her photo – her beautiful family! I’m sure she thought the lake was beautiful too, but if you can’t see that sweet baby sitting in front of it, what’s the point? So get out there and embrace that flash. You and your oh-so-nicely lit, gorgeous photos will thank you. Here is a side by side to compare. Nice toes Scott.
Here is our lovely photog showing off her wonderful images to Ashley (flash up and raring to go at a moments notice).
Oops, she busted me. Good gracious, what am I doing? Maybe I was channeling my inner Zoolander…? Yeah, that’s it. THAT’S what I was doing… I swiped this pic off of April’s Facebook page. It’s embarrasing, but hey, if it’s good enough for Facebook, it’s good enough for my blog!
Thanks to April for the sending me the images above and for agreeing to let me share them with you.
by Amanda
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