Indoor flash woes...

[Ultra Magnus]

Do any of you take indoor pictures with the camera's built in flash? I hate the horrible shadows! Drives me crazy. When the kids are doing something funny or cute and spontaneous I used to grab the camera and shoot some pictures, but none of them are ever usable so I've stopped. I'll use the fill flash outdoors when necessary but I don't know what to do indoors. Do external flashes work better? It seems to me that the flash being mounted up higher would just create an even worse shadow.

[Lionheart]

For one thing, the flash is up high, out of line of sight of the subjects eyes, so red eye is reduced significantly. Another plus is the ability to bounce the flash against a wall or ceiling to soften the lighting for a more even exposure.

[Ultra Magnus]

An external flash has been on our list of things to get, along with a bunch of other stuff. The kids (our primary subjects) were going down for a nap yesterday and I got a couple of good photos. Kids are adorable when tired/sleeping or falling asleep, and most importantly - STILL. With an ISO 200-400, f2-2.5 I was able to get a shutter speed in the 1/15-1/30 range with the natural light coming in from the window. I even got a little fancy and got a white sheet to reflect some more light on a couple of pics. I still got the "shaky hand" icon, but I usually can hold the camera steady enough at those shutter speeds to take a good picture. At ISO400 though, the pics are a bit noisy/grainy. They'll be fine for smaller prints, and in BW. Sometimes I wish we could have studio lighting throughout our house! Thanks!!

[another view]

Actually, getting the flash up higher will drop the shadows behind the subject so you won't see them in the photograph. That's why wedding photographers use brackets like Stroboframes. Of course, they're a pain to use compared to just sticking the flash on the camera. You'd probably miss some shots trying to put all the parts together! Trying to bounce the light off the ceiling (as long as it's white) is a good idea and easy to do.

[Charles Hess]

The other posters had good advice. Until then, try to get your subjects as far away from the wall or furniture as possible, to lessen the impact of the flash-caused shadow.

[JimK]

You don't mention which camera or flash you are using/wanting but I very seldom use a built-in flash these days. If you bounce the flash off of the ceiling, the shadows are eliminated. This photo was taken with a Canon G3 and 420EX flash bounced off of the cieling with some window light to the right. My niece and her friend.

Second photo, my nephew is lit almost entirely with flash bounced off of cieling. I know...they're just snapshots at a birthday party but you get the idea

[Ultra Magnus]

It's a Sony DSC-F828, and no, we havn't picked out a flash yet. So I'm assuming I need one that pivots?

[another view]

It's a Sony DSC-F828, and no, we havn't picked out a flash yet. So I'm assuming I need one that pivots?

Yes, one where the head pivots up. You'll want to aim it to hit the ceiling roughly half way between you and your subject. Some flashes pivot from side to side as well so you can bounce the light off of a wall, but that's not something you'd probably use too often. Get whatever Sony recommends for the camera to take full advantage of features.

[walterick]

Look into one that rotates up, to bounce off the ceiling -

One that rotates left or right, to bounce off the walls, OR to bounce off the ceiling when you're holding your camera vetical (you do that, right?

One that has a small, secondary "fill flash" built in so when you're bouncing the main light off something the small light shoots a little light straight ahead to fill in shadows under the eyes and nose, etc. This is my favorite flash scenario.

Have fun shopping!

Rick