Dumb flashes!

[peteshimmon]

Many years ago in the city of Bath one bright
summer afternoon, I walked past a lady taking
a picture. I noticed her flash operate. "But
its broad daylight you silly woman" I managed
not to blurt out loud. I figured someone had
set the electronic flash to be on all the
time so she would get a picture day and night.
And electronic flash was new at the time. Now
when crowd scenes at sporting events are
televised there is a steady stream of flashes
from all over the crowd. It has become so
normal that a simultion of the coming
Olympic stadium here shows the flashing from
the spectators. And it does enliven an
othewise dull scene. But I am glad the first
digital camera I have just bought allows the
flash to be switched off. I will not be
flashing any ignorance of physics myself:).

[tdvance]

it's not so bad....that is until you are at a star party and dark adapted and someone decides to take everybody's picture....that's happened a few times! Well, one time it was a local reporter who was invited for the purpose so we had to groan and bear it.

[TrAI]

Well, digital cameras for the consumer marked seems to default to automatic flash control. So if it fires the flash, it is because the camera finds the light level to low. Of course the cameras are programmed to do this, to reduce the need for long shutter times, as photos like these will have more noise and of course blur due to moving the camera during the exposure.

There are reasons for using flash during the day, for example to fill in the dark areas on a subject when taking a photo with a bright background. The woman you saw may have had a reason for using flash.

[peteshimmon]

As I remember it was a scene she was snapping
with nothing close up. My new camera allows
flash off, auto or alway on. Well imaging
colurful autumn leaves in bright sun means it
stays off!

I have to pinch myself how much technology
gives us today. I thought my favourite
kodachrome 64 was cheap 20 years ago but a
1Gb card for £10 holds hundreds of images.
Batteries are a pain though. (or cells!).
My brother has scanned some of my thousands of
slides and it was great seeing them on his
laptop. I took some great images. Only thing
with my camera, I have to use a magnifying
glass to read the instructions and the things
on the camera! But a useful waterproof case
makes the thing beefy enough to use for
this older person.

[Tucson_Tim]

it's not so bad....that is until you are at a star party and dark adapted and someone decides to take everybody's picture....that's happened a few times! Well, one time it was a local reporter who was invited for the purpose so we had to groan and bear it.

I can hear the groans! :)