smile!

I just bought a Canon Speedlite 420EX flash for my collection of SLR cameras. I've never really done much serious flash photography before so I spent the day learning about the nuances of how photo flashes work and how to properly take photos with a flash.

Most of the pictures I've taken with a flash tend to be snapshots. The light from a camera flash tends to be very harsh and sharp; the shadows are very defined and they tend to make you look old and pale. In other words, photos that I've taken where I had to use a camera flash really suck.

There are apparently two important things to remember about taking aesthetically pleasing photos with a flash:

First, it's important to diffuse the light. You can do this by reflecting the light off of a white ceiling or wall (if you're indoors) or by covering the flash with a diffuser unit (works greats outdoors). The upside is that you get photos that look more natural; the downside is that diffusing the light with these techniques tends to cut down on the range of the flash.

The second thing thing to remember is to properly meter the shot so that the background doesn't look to dark. (You do this by measuring the exposure time without the flash and then taking the photo with the flash in "auto-fill-flash" mode. The downside to this is that you typically need a tripod for these types of shots as they have a long exposure time) This is particularly important if you're taking a shot of a group of friends, for example, with the effiel tower lit up behind them at night. If you don't properly expose the shot and you use a flash, your friends will look nice and bright but you won't see the tower in the background.

Anyhow, I found a great site that discusses many other techniques you can employ to take great photos using a flash.