Digital camera flash

By Chuck Hajdu

I recently attended a family wedding and had the opportunity to test a digital camera at the event. It turned out to be an excellent test environment because, in addition to the wedding and reception, we had a bride's side versus groom's side softball game. That meant that in addition to the indoor and outdoor wedding we also got to shoot a brightly lit softball field. 

The Olympus camera that I used, a PEN E-P3, performed perfectly and turned out to be an excellent choice. The only problems I ran into invloved using the built-in flash. There were times that is was perfect to illuminate a picture and many times when it was totally inadequate. It proved to be surprisingly effective as an outdoor fill flash and not-surprisingly terrible at lighting a large hall. 

My advice to every photographer is to use your equipment a lot and learn what it can do and what it can't do. The best teacher is always experience and that is especially true with cameras. Don't wait until the last minute to try something, practice starting today.