Making a Splash With Flash

Today’s Post by Joe Farace, photo by Mary Farace

Some point and shoot cameras have a “kids” mode most of which boils down to the same exposure advice I’m gonna give you right now:

When photographing kids outdoors, turn on the flash. Even a small pop-up flash will add some additional sparkle and illumination to have the kids “pop” out from the background and fill in shadows because you won’t always e in the most perfect position to catch that special moment of fun. The small pop-up flash built into point and shoot cameras and mirrorless is a good place to start, but don’t be afraid to use a speedlight that’s part of (or compatible with) your camera system.

Caption: An Olympus FL-50R speedlight was used (with Olympus camera) to make this action photograph that I call “Splash.” The FL-50R offers high-speed synchronization up to 1/4000th sec and also fast recycle intervals at less than 1.3 sec. The FL-50R has a Guide Number of 164; for more about Guide Numbers read this post.