Overexposed with on-cam flash

I haven't had my camera more than about two weeks, so I'm still experimenting. I took quite a few shots indoors with decent light and set the flash at all levels. Even on low it appears that the shots look washed out. BTW ... this is on the automatic setting.

I do plan on purchasing the Promaster, but is this normal with the on-camera flash?

Thanks

Scott

Auto does not equal perfect. Try using aperture priority set to f/4 and try again. The sooner you can stop using auto, the better your images will turn out

Scott Brooks said:

I haven't had my camera more than about two weeks, so I'm still
experimenting. I took quite a few shots indoors with decent light
and set the flash at all levels. Even on low it appears that the
shots look washed out. BTW ... this is on the automatic setting.

I do plan on purchasing the Promaster, but is this normal with the
on-camera flash?

Thanks

Scott

Click to expand...

--
Shay

My Sony F707 & F717 Gallery: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp
My F717 Observations: http://www.shaystephens.com/f717.asp

Do you find it helps to set the flash power to low?

Regards,
Steve

Shay Stephens said:

Scott Brooks said:

I haven't had my camera more than about two weeks, so I'm still
experimenting. I took quite a few shots indoors with decent light
and set the flash at all levels. Even on low it appears that the
shots look washed out. BTW ... this is on the automatic setting.

I do plan on purchasing the Promaster, but is this normal with the
on-camera flash?

Thanks

Scott

Click to expand...

--
Shay

My Sony F707 & F717 Gallery: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp
My F717 Observations: http://www.shaystephens.com/f717.asp

Click to expand...

I just got to thinking here. Scott mentions he took the photos indoors with decent lighting. I am wondering if that means there was enough light to not need the flash, and adding the flash pushed the exposure over the top. Maybe the subject was too close?

Scott do you have a sample you could post of a bad pic?

GPSteve said:

Regards,
Steve

Shay Stephens said:

Scott Brooks said:

I haven't had my camera more than about two weeks, so I'm still
experimenting. I took quite a few shots indoors with decent light
and set the flash at all levels. Even on low it appears that the
shots look washed out. BTW ... this is on the automatic setting.

I do plan on purchasing the Promaster, but is this normal with the
on-camera flash?

Thanks

Scott

Click to expand...

--
Shay

My Sony F707 & F717 Gallery: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp
My F717 Observations: http://www.shaystephens.com/f717.asp

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Shay

My Sony F707 & F717 Gallery: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp
My F717 Observations: http://www.shaystephens.com/f717.asp

Shay Stephens said:

I just got to thinking here. Scott mentions he took the photos
indoors with decent lighting. I am wondering if that means there
was enough light to not need the flash, and adding the flash pushed
the exposure over the top. Maybe the subject was too close?

Scott do you have a sample you could post of a bad pic?

Click to expand...

Sorry, I'm so new that I know anything about posting photos or anything like that.

As for the lighting ... it wasn't real dark, but I didn't force the flash. I did, however, take additional photos and turned the flash off. I just had to make sure there was no movement.

As for shooting in the aperature mode ... I'll try that with the flash and see how it comes out.

Thanks for the tip ... quitet useful!

Scott B.

Scott,

You didn't mention what camera you have. I own a F-707, and my on board flash is set to high. I get always perfectly exposed photos. So I wouldn't automatically blame the built in flash. Try your flash inside a dark room and see what you get.

Yehuda

Yehuda Katz said:

Scott,

You didn't mention what camera you have. I own a F-707, and my on
board flash is set to high. I get always perfectly exposed photos.
So I wouldn't automatically blame the built in flash. Try your
flash inside a dark room and see what you get.

Yehuda

Click to expand...

I agree with getting away from the AUTO MODE. There are times in which I still use the auto mode, when I need to "Grab & Shoot".

The first pictures I took were over exposed like what you are discribing.

Reducing the flash to low helps.

Here is a couple of simple work arounds you might try. Do a search on flash bouncers. I took a old 35mm semi-transparent film canaster and cut a piece out of it which allows it to slide over the on board flash. If it is still to bright, take another canaster and cut it up so that a piece can be incerted in the original canaster. "POOR MANS DEFUSER"

You might use a white index care placed in front of the flash at a 45 degree angle to bounce the light off the ceiling (IF the ceiling is a 8-12 ft high.)

I'm not an expert, BUT I sure like to tinker with things.

TOM