Imre Z. Balint, BSc, MPM, MBA

Using fill flash may seem like a fairly simple thing to do, but creating this video reminded me of some of its challenges. Like I pointed out in the episode, there's not much to getting your flash to fire every time you take a photo; it's getting your shot to look the way you want it to that can sometimes be trivial, other times a bit huff and puff. Nonetheless, once you start getting the hang of how your camera and flash behave together, the benefits and rewards start pulling through. And one behavior to note is how your camera exposes. In the video, I took some photos of myself, first with the flash off and then with the flash on at low, medium and maximum power levels. Now if you're not very familiar with the way most modern digital SLR cameras expose and meter, then I suggest you watch Episode 6 of my photo series to enlighten you. This may help you understand what I'm about to get into a little better. Generally, most cameras tend to meter and expose in favor...

And the flash mini-series comes to an end... but not the end of the photography series! Lots and lots more episodes to come! As usual, it's already 10pm so my brain is shutting down for the night. Tomorrow I'll scribble up the supplemental post to Episode 17 , which should enlighten you on a few points not heavily covered in the video. L8r!

I certainly hope you enjoyed Episode 16 ! I've received some great comments and they're certainly appreciated. The slow sync flash modes can be a very creative and fun option to use. For the practical, it can enhance your night / low-light shots, and for the exuberant, well... the outcomes are pretty much limitless. To get a vivid idea of what slow sync can do, check out the links I have in my Web Resources section below. To add a little something, something to my video, keep in mind that your camera will behave differently depending on the mode you're in (i.e. aperture or shutter priority, manual mode). For example, if I set my E-3 to aperture priority and aim it around a dark room, I can see the shutter speed vary anywhere from 1/10 of a second to 10 seconds (and even higher in really dark areas), regardless of whether I'm using first or second curtain slow sync. However, in shutter priority or manual mode, the camera will use whatever shutter speed you set as on...

Woot! Episode 16 of my photography series is done and live on YouTube. This time the show features the slow sync flash modes, aka first and second curtain (and sometimes front and rear curtains). Keep your eyes peeled on my blog as the supplemental post will cometh tomorrow and I've got some great links to share with you! And I am on Twitter @BinaryGraphite Do follow me to stay up-to-date with my goodies; I also post other interesting things I happen upon when I surf the WWW, so you might very well find those do-dads fun too. L8r!

I must say that I was quite surprised during my script writing for this episode to discover how much a seemingly simple topic such as red-eye could envelop. There's a wee bit of biology involved and numerous techniques available to either lessen the impact of or eliminate red-eye. The tough part almost always seems to come down to under what circumstances do you use a particular method and frankly there's hardly an easy answer to that. But what I can add in addition to the video is that if you are using a digital SLR with a hot-shoe mounted flash, chances are that for most shoots involving people you won't have to worry about red-eye occurring; the flash is far enough away from the lens (large parallax) that its bright light won't reflect back into the lens from the retinas glaring back at you. For more info on red-eye, check out the links below. Next week (well hopefully next week) should conclude my flash mini-series, and by should I mean that in the future I...

Yeay! Episode 15 is live on YouTube! Tomorrow I shall complete the supplemental post for all to enjoy. L8r!

Alright, as promised here's the supplemental post to my video demonstrating how to tune a ukulele and play some easy chords on it. I would like to add that ukulele's tend to go out of tune fairly quickly, so if you play them for longer than about 45 minutes, you'll need to tune up (perhaps sooner, depending on how hard you play it). And it should go without saying, but you should always tune your instrument before playing it anyway. Tisk, tisk. Some errata to report too... well kind of. When I'm showing how to do an E chord, I didn't mention that you also fret the first string on the second fret with your index finger. I've added an annotation to the video, so hopefully viewers won't miss it, even though you can see fairly clearly that I do press down on that string. *sigh* I must've been distracted by my hats and accents. Below I've posted a few links to some ukulele related websites. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is fantastic and a ...

Well there's certainly going to be a part two to this post as my usual pattern kicked in; once again t'is a little late! None-the-less, do enjoy the new video on tuning the ukulele and an introduction to a few chords on the cute little instrument. Plus, I wear four different hats in the vid! Ya can't miss that! And if you haven't already, please do subscribe and check me out on Facebook (become a Fan!) so you can stay up-to-date with my goodies! L8r.