The word ‘exposure’ is a very important word in the lexicon of both amateur and professional photographers and is based on the understanding of light in creating good photographs.

• If there is too much light, the photo will look overly bright and over exposed.

• A happy group of people will not look as vibrant if there was inadequate light when you took the picture.

• Bright sunlight can create shadows under the eyes.

• Poor lighting may not bring out the colors in the scene to maximum effect

There are a few basics that you can apply to circumvent poor picture quality due to unfavorable light conditions:

• Change the position from which you take the shot

• Change the light if clicking indoors

• Use the flash

The use of the flash can be a boon when you operate in different light conditions. If you have an overcast sky, the flash in your camera will serve the purpose of letting some light into the image that you are trying to capture and brightening it up. The flash also works to your advantage when your subject is not too close but slightly away from you. But you have to check the ‘flash range’ of your camera in your manual. The flash works best when your subject is within a recommended range that is usually at least 4 ft and generally not more than 10 ft.

Most simple cameras have an automatic flash. Slightly better models will have settings for fill-flash. The concept of fill flash revolves around filling light in areas of a picture that may turn out dark or shadowed. Fill-flash has the ability to balance the amount of light on different parts of a subject to ensure that the exposure is adequately bright. For instance, a portion of a person’s face may appear shadowed and the fill-flash setting can help iron out this problem.