Jon: Hey Sue! I just took some cool pictures of the kids!
Sue: What were they doing?
Jon: Oh … um … playing with fire …
Actually, that’s not all they were doing, but mostly. Anyway, this article is clearly not about the UK except for the fact that we were hanging out with the cousins for one last sleepover before heading to the UK … so it’s sort of related. It’s much more related to this entry in my frackme blog that I think I am going to phase out.
Anyway, check out what you can do in Aperture Priority Mode on a Canon digital SLR camera, in this case the Rebel Xt.
The basic idea is, If you’re in Av mode and the flash is on, and it’s kinda dark outside, the camera will evaluate the exposure as though the flash is not on, set the timing appropriately, and then will fire the flash in order to light up the subject in front. So this allows you do see the background and the subject at the same time. Often when you use the flash in Auto mode, the background is dark or black and just the subject is properly exposed by the flash:
Here’s another one with some motion blur. You can see Madeline in the front, and a ghost of Colby in the background on the right. I think he’s a ghost because the flash barely reached him. He must not have been standing there the whole time.
This one is even cooler I think:
I still have a lot to learn about flash photography but at least these pictures didn’t catch me by surprise when I took them!