Point-and-shoot cameras today give you several options for using the flash, but it isn’t always easy to know which option is best. Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the settings on your camera, and read the tips below to find out how best to use those settings.

- Using the red eye reduction flash can keep your friends and family from looking like creatures of the night, and save you the time of fixing the creepy red glows in your photo editing software. Your camera will fire a short pre-flash, causing your subjects eyes pupils to constrict, so the light of the main flash won’t reflect off of the insides of their dilated eyes.

- Turn your flash off in low light. I know it’s counterintuitive, but on-camera flashes aren’t very good for brightening up dark rooms and can often leave your subjects looking like they’re in a dark cave. This is because the camera automatically uses a short shutter speed when the flash is on, making it impossible for your camera to pick up the dimmer ambient light in the scene. Without the flash you’ll have a longer shutter speed, so your cameras sensor will have time to gather that dimmer light.

green portrait by A_of_Doom on Flickr

- Some cameras give you the best of both worlds by providing a ‘slow synch speed’ setting. This means your flash will fire, but your shutter speed will also be long so the ambient light will also show up in your final shot. This can also be achieved through the manual settings on some point-and-shoot cameras, by setting your shutter speed to around 1/30 of a second and turning your flash to ‘forced on,’ represented by the lightning bolt symbol on most cameras.

- Use your flash during the day! When you’re outside and have both shaded and sunlit areas in the same scene, your flash is invaluable. The contrast between shadowy and lighted areas is too much for your camera to capture, so you end up with overexposed sunlit areas, or deep black shadows. Using the on camera flash (set to ‘forced on’) as a fill flash will reduce this contrast and give you pictures that are closer to what your eye sees. This is a great technique for photographing people in front of sunsets. Their faces will be properly lit, and the sunset colors will still show up behind them.

Boy Fishing by scottfeldstein on Flickr

- Your on-camera flash has a range of about 15 feet. Try to get at least that close to your subject or you will end up with dark, murky pictures.

- Diffuse the light! Naked flashes can make for sharp shadows and unattractive reflections on people’s skin. To create a softer light, diffuse the flash by taping a piece of thin paper or even tissue over the flash. The range of your flash will decrease, but for portraits this technique makes all the difference. You can also have fun creating special effects with colored plastic wrap, or gels from your local camera store.

If your vacation plans involve a tropical or coastal destination, or even a hotel pool, you might want to think about trying underwater photography. It’s easy to get great shots of undersea worlds, strange fish or your children hamming it up in the pool.

Photo by whiskeymac on Flickr

You have a couple of options for how to jump into underwater imaging. There are many digital cameras on the market today that are water resistant at depths up to 10 to 15 feet, perfect for shooting while snorkeling or playing in the pool. These cameras usually have all or most of the features of regular digital point-and-shoot cameras, with the added benefit of being water resistant, so they are a good buy even if you plan to do most of your shooting on land.

Waterproof Cases for Digital Cameras

If you already have a digital camera, chances are waterproof casings are available for it. Most major manufacturers offer custom waterproof cases, but for those that don’t there are products like the Ewa-Marine Waterproof case, essentially a watertight plastic sleeve with a fitting for your lens, and access to all of the camera’s buttons.

Tips for Shooting and Camera Maintenance

- If you are using a waterproof casing for your camera, make sure all of the seals are intact and clean. If silica gel was included with your casing be sure to use it to treat the seals.

- As light passes through water, longer wavelengths are filtered out, so at a depth of just a few feet even bright reds and oranges look bluish-green. To correct for this you will want to use your flash, which will bring out the true colors of what you’re seeing.

Star Attraction by laszlo-photo on Flickr

- If you have the option of interchangeable lenses on your camera, go for a macro lens or a wide-angle lens, both of which allow you to focus at close distances.

- Many cameras offer ‘underwater scene’ modes that adjust the white balance to remove some of the blue cast that underwater images often have. If your camera does not have this setting you can get a similar effect by setting your white balance to ‘cloudy.’

Happy Honu by jurvetson on Flickr

- Set your camera to a fast ISO to compensate for the low light conditions you’re likely to be shooting in underwater. The higher the ISO the faster your shutter speed will be, allowing you to freeze motion.

- When you are finished shooting, rinse the casing in fresh water, and let it air dry.

Image by Nadya Peek on Flickr