We don’t need fancy cameras to take good pictures. Several models of very compact cameras, the so-called “point-and-shoot”, have features which allow you to adapt the equipment, so it work on situations on which the automatic mode isn’t suitable.
A lot of good tutorials, and camera manuals, go through a detailed explanation about apperture and exposure time. Let’s try a more practical and introductory approach. Without going technical, it’s possible to have an idea of the reasons sometimes the camera doesn’t behave as we expect it to do.
Let’s say you’re taking a picture on the automatic mode. Your equipment will do what it can to generate an “average” scene, neither too dark or too bright. So, if it’s a bit dark, the flash will be turned on.
“But I just want the camera to capture what I see!”
That’s the main complaint of beginners – we’re photographing indoors, the flash turns on and the background becomes way too dark, and the foreground becomes flat. On the other hand, if you turn it off manually, the picture gets blurry.
Do you remember the average scene mentioned above? That’s all about it. If the scene is darker than that average, the camera on automatic mode tries to compensate that with flash. If it’s turned off, the camera keeps the shutter open during some extra time, so more light gets in. The drawback: the more time the shutter is open, more chances we have to get some blur.
By now, try turning off the flash. Then hold firmly your camera, or lay it on a base, to avoid shaking. I, for example, took very nice pictures at night just by putting a camera on a small bench, without needing to take a tripod around.
Probably, on darker environments, you’ll have to use the flash. But we’ve got other options. On Part II we’ll talk a little about the exposure meter, and how it’s related to this brief introduction.
