Recently, my wife and I went to Providence, RI to see WaterFire which is a community arts event that includes over 100 bonfires that burn above the surface of the rivers in Providence.
Since I had my camera bag and was taking pictures with my digital SLR a few people asked if I would take pictures of them and their partner. Most of them were using the camera built in their smartphone and I happily obliged. After taking a picture of the first couple, I noticed that the flash did not go off as I expected to being that it was dark. The sensor factored more than I expected the light from the fire in the background. As a result they were silhouetted against what is known as back lighting. The light in the background was much brighter then the light in the foreground. I mentioned this to them and suggested that I take another picture but this time with the flash on. They agreed and in the subsequent pictures they were shown as a result of my using flash to take their picture. When I took pictures of other couples afterwards, I mentioned this to them and made sure to turn the flash on prior to taking their picture and all worked out fine.
Whether it be with your smartphone or other camera, when you are taking a picture of someone and the light in the background is significantly more than in the foreground, it is a good idea to turn your flash on and bypass the automatic sensor. That said, there are times when a silhouetted picture can be nice. See the pictures taken in the link. Click to see pictures. The picture on the left was taken without flash and my wife and I are partially silhouetted. The one on the right was taken using a flash. You can see the effect of using flash even though the automatic sensor did not indicate that it was necessary. This is because the light in the background (backlight) made it indicate that no flash was needed.
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Happy picture taking and remember there are times when you want to bypass the auto flash and have your flash turned on.
If you want to know more about how you can better use your smartphone or other technology. I can be contacted at (917) 572-3468 or email me at mike@computerconciergeny.com .
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Feel free to join the conversation and post comments and questions on my Facebook page at Computer Concierge NY LLC . There also are tips there to better use your computer, smartphone, iPad and other technology you may have or are thinking of buying.
One last thing here. If you get the chance go and see Waterfire. It is about a 3 hour drive from here and certainly worth it.