Digital Photography

Want to shoot better holiday pics of your family this year? Well, when you shoot with flash, one easy way to get better results is to add a flash diffuser. 

Normally, the light from a built-in flash is narrowly focused and very harsh, leading to strong shadows, uneven lighting, and, often, glare spots on the skin and that old devil, red eye. A diffuser, which is a thin piece of transluscent plastic or material that fits over the flash unit, spreads and softens the light for more flattering results (although red eye may not be totally eliminated). The picture here shows the LumiQuest Soft Screen (www.lumiquest.com), which is made for the pop-up flash units found on some SLR cameras, but you can buy them for point-and-shoot models as well. You don’t have to spend much to gain the benefit of a diffuser, either — this one, for example, retails for about $14. And because it folds flat for storage, it’s easy to tuck into your camera bag.

Keep in mind that the camera doesn’t have any way to know that you’ve added a diffuser, though, so the softening of the flash light may cause your pictures to be just slightly underexposed at the normal settings. If your camera offers flash-power adjustment, just kick up the flash strength a notch to compensate for the diffuser. Otherwise, look for your camera’s Exposure Value (EV) adjustment control (it’s usually labeled with a little plus/minus sign) and raise the value slightly to get a brighter picture.

Every family’s got one: A “blinker.” This is the person who, in 9 out of every 10 photos, is captured with eyes closed, having blinked at the exact moment the picture was snapped. Our family, in fact, has more than one (you know who you are).

Some newer digital cameras offer so-called “blink detection,” a feature that alerts you if the camera thinks one of your subjects has closed eyes in a picture you just took. That’s great, but how do you get better results on your next shot? Here are a few things to try:

• Shoot without flash if possible. The bright pop of the flash light is the main cause of the blink reflex, so try to shoot without one. You can pose your subjects near a sunny window, turn on lots of room lights, or, weather permitting, move outside and shoot by daylight.
• Take several shots in a row. If you’re using flash, people’s eyes will be more accustomed to the light burst by the time you get to the third shot, so you’re more likely to get open eyes.
• Consider poses that show your subject looking away from the lens (and flash). You can shoot two subjects looking towards each other, as here. Or you can photograph a single subject engaged in a favorite activity, such as a guitar player with head slightly bent, glancing down and strumming the strings. Not only are subjects less likely to react to the flash light when they’re looking away from it, but the photo still looks natural even if the eyes are slightly closed. As a side benefit, you usually get more interesting pictures than you do with formal, ”look at me and say cheese!” poses.