Some Photography questions

[TheDvEight]

Hi all,


Just a few questions I need answered really

• How often should you discharge batteries & how long does this take?
• I've bought a bridge camera after getting to grips with it today I can only seem to use the flash for red eye reduction rather than the full flash regardless of which capture mode I am in (example: SP,SPAuto etc etc) I have consulted both the

manuals for my camera and still not sure why this is I am using a Fujifilm FinePix s4500.

[smilodon]

I. Lithium Ion batteries don't need to be discharged. They can be topped off if partially depleted no problem.

2. The Fuji does most of the work itself when it comes to working out flash.
If you have face detection turned on with red eye reduction set as well, then whenever you photograph a face the camera will detect the fact and will pre-fire the flash briefly to remove red eye. It's not perfect as some people are 'blinkers' and will react so fast to the first red eye flash that they will be in mid blink when the second proper flash happens and will have their eyes closed or partially closed. If so turn off red eye reduction and just make sure you don't photograph the person head on with them looking straight at the lens. This should get rid of the red eye effect.

The normal flash has three settings which you can activate by pushing the right button on the four way controller on top of the camera. You can set it to 'camera decides when to flash', 'camera always fires the flash' and 'slow syncro'. Slow Syncro is where the camera fires the flash to capture the main foreground subject but also leaves the shutter open a bit longer so as to get some of the fainter light from the background as well. Without the slower shutter the subject gets lit by the flash but the background gets nothing and appears jet black. It's like two exposures, one from the flash light that exposes the subject and one from the ambient light that exposes the background scene.

On camera flash is never going to be very flattering to your subject but basically the camera should be working out what it needs to do to get a decently exposed photograph. The flash should work in all the modes you have other than it's unlikely that 'slow syncro' will work in manual mode.

[TheDvEight]

Thanks for the reply Smilo I'm still having the same problem it does the red eye flash fine but not the slow & forced flash for some reason

[smilodon]

If pushing the little button with the flash symbol on it doesn't cycle between flash modes (when the flash is popped up) then I think it might be faulty?

[TheDvEight]

It will cycle and let me go through the different modes and choose them just wont do them when capturing a picture will only actually do the red eye flash

[DrunkenZombiee]

What mode are you in when taking the photo?

With AUTO you may not be able to choose. Something like portrait mode should have it by default and there may not be a need to cycle through the modes. As Smilo says use the flash sparingly as its often not flattering to your subject.

DZ

[TheDvEight]

I only really wanted to use it in low light conditions I will have a go cheers.

[TheDvEight]

emailed customer services regarding the flash problem and they want me to send the camera back and send me a new one.

[smilodon]

Hopefully that will fix it. Sometimes the auto features on cameras can cause more problems than they solve and you can never be sure that a problem is a fault rather than some obscure setting buried down in the menu somewhere. This does sound like a fault though as you should be able to easily choose whether a flash fires always, never or when the camera detects that it's needed. I checked the manual for your camera and that's certainly what is supposed to be happening.

[TheDvEight]

I can choose to use forced/full flash it just wont do it when I press the shutter so wont take the picture with that setting on, slightly annoying as only had the camera for 3 days but rather have it fixed than not, thank god for warranty's

[TheDvEight]

Finally got the camera back today all works fine now shame the weather is not better otherwise I'd be out there right now

[smilodon]

Poncy pictures of water droplets on windows is an option. Good to hear it's all working again.

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