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Comment by misframer | Hacker News Reader

> Oh, and please don’t use your camera’s built-in flash. Ever.

Why not?

Because he doesn't know what he's talking about, and you shouldn't be taking camera advice from him.

The built in flash is perfectly fine for adding fill light to an image and with a bit of diffusion can even work as primary light source in a pinch.

> adding fill light to an image and with a bit of diffusion can even work as primary light source in a pinch.

And that's Greek to anyone who casually takes pictures.

Marco is also a professional wedding photograph if I am not mistaken. I think he actually knows what he is talking about. Generally the built in flash is too close to the camera, is obstructed by the lense and if direct facing.

He might know what he's talking about if he's talking to aspiring wedding photographers.

No, the built-in flash is way too close to the lens and often causes red-eye, overly stark shadows and the like.

Saying no one should use it is pretty extreme, but unless you have really poor lighting situation (nighttime outside or against the sunset), it's about 95% likely to produce a poorer image than without.

And this is advice for beginners who have no idea what a flash diffuser is.

His wife is a pro photographer but he is not. He just gets to play with high end equipment because it's available to him.

Because when used incompetently straight-on flashes make pictures awful.

When used competently you get some very cool effects:

https://www.google.com/search?q=terry+richardson&aq=f...

(And oh God Google's URL sucks)

So this whole "don't use your built-in flash ever" rule is really more "don't use your built-in flash unless you know what your'e doing", which seems less universal and more accurate.

Also, a lot of what makes straight-on flash pictures awful is actually a problem with the camera's metering. Modern flashes will emit a less powerful, very brief pre-flash for the camera to get a fix on how the picture will look with the flash, and adjust its exposure settings accordingly. A bad algorithm (nowadays algorithms, back in the old days simpler) will overexpose and result in washed out images (blown highlights, in actual parlance). If you camera is competent at automatically metering its own built-in flash you can avoid a lot of this - this is a main feature that separates crappy point and shoot cameras from good point and shoot cameras.

Built in flash is very harsh (it causes lots of shadows, and can wash areas out). When you use a good flash, the camera and the flash are more separated, which reduces the harshness a little, but you can point nicer flashes up in the air, allowing you to bounce the light off the ceiling, simulating a more natural lighting environment.

Be careful though, if your ceilings aren't white, you'll be covering everything in whatever color your ceiling is.

I put a white paper box that I made over the built-in flash. It is open on the top and has a flap so I can aim it back at the subject if I want. It actually does a pretty good job of dialing down the harshness. Perhaps not as good as a rotatable external flash, but for the cost of free, it's pretty great.

One of my friends throws an empty cigarette box over the flash.

Because direct flash makes things look terrible. If you want flash, you need to buy a flash that can bounce off the ceiling or something similar. Besides, modern SLRs have such great low-light performance that buying a fast prime pretty much removes the need for a flash at all.

Or you can try a Lightscoop - I use that with my built-in flash exclusively. Works great and you wouldn't even know that I used my built-in flash. lightscoop.com

"SLRs have such great low-light performance"

They do but you have to keep in mind that in low light it compensates by opening the shutter longer, and you really need to stabilize your camera (tripod is ideal) or it will come out blurry. If you're not using a tripod, and just taking a snapshot, you can just hold still, put your arm against your body and it should come out decent.

"It" being the camera? If we're talking about an SLR, you are in control, not "it". Stick that puppy in aperture priority, open it up to 1.8 and crank the ISO. My entry SLR from 6 years ago takes great shots even at ISO 800. New ones can probably quadruple that.

"Stick that puppy in aperture priority, open it up to 1.8 and crank the ISO"

And then what? I'm not a camera expert so I'm not sure what this means. I know how to do those things or can find it but not what it accomplishes.

By putting it in aperture priority mode, you can let the camera choose the optimum shutter speed while guaranteeing that the aperture stays at what you set (presumably the highest - f/1.8)

In order to make sure the shutter speed the camera selects for you isn't too slow and causes blurriness, boost up your ISO to as high a value as acceptable (acceptable is subjective here).

Interesting! Thank you! I will try this out on my camera.

"Because direct flash makes things look terrible"

Not every image is dictated by the same aesthetic.

Since it is really close to the lens, it creates quite ugly shadows and takes away depth from the image.

But if you put a piece of paper in front of the built-in flash at 45 degree angle, you can use it to create decent light indoors.

Maybe he just assumes (like most people) that flash is just another light source for when there's not enough light.

Yet the pop up flash in your DSLR was never meant as a light source like studio lamps. It's there so you can use it as a fill flash[1]. And it does this job pretty well.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fill_flash

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