{Wacky Wednesday} Softening Your Camera's Built-In Flash

Happy Wednesday, friends! Sarah (sporte91) here to show you a quick tip for using your camera's built in flash.

I happen to own a Canon 580ex to pair with my DSLR. But sometimes I don't feel like lugging that big thing around, or a moment is happening too quickly to pop it on, or I don't have batteries charged for it. So what do I do if it's dark and I need to use flash? I use the one built into my camera. But not all by itself. Using your camera's built-in flash can give a harsh, cool look to your photos that's unnatural and not at all flattering.

Here's a shot I grabbed of my goofy son, using my built-in flash:

Can you see how his skin looks really pale and the shadows are harsh? Not so good. But I can fix that with a really simple tool.

This is a piece of computer printer paper, rolled into a tube. When I sit this over my camera's flash, it makes the light bigger and softer.

Here's a photo with my paper tube over the flash:

Can you see the difference? The shadows are softer, and the color of his skin is warmer and more natural.

Try this for yourself. Experiment by folding your paper into different shapes and see how it changes the look of your photos.

Would love to see photos and layouts of you using this technique. Link them up in the comments so we can leave you some extra love.

Happy snapping!

Sharing a tutorial

Do you follow Kevin & Amanda's blog? I love to see the variety of things that she posts about and she is a great photographer too.  She posted a really great tutorial about lighting and photography of objects. She is photographing food in her examples but I think it really applies to photographing our hybrid projects as well. Go check it out!

I am going to be playing out with this and oh how I wish I had a kitchen table with all those beautiful windows and natural light shining through!