As you know, scrapbooking friends and family, Family Photojournalists, have caught my attention. I've been sharing a lot of advice in recent months, and have decided to start passing along some of it in an attempt at more regularity on this blog!

I'm glad to say that many of these Family Photojournalists are saying good-bye to point-and-shoots and compacts and buying increasingly affordable 35mm DSLRs. This immediately makes my role as adviser a bit simpler. Due to the reasonable cost and super results by these cameras, most with pop-up flashes, even many professional photographers are using these kinds of SLRs.

Most professionals, though, avoid using the pop-up flash and buy an expensive external flash. Of course, they understand how to use the sophisticated electronics and can afford the expense.

Take a hint from the pros, though, and do avoid using that pop-up flash direct! Light direct from any flash – including those expensive external flashes — looks unnatural. The bright direct light washes out colors and facial features. You know the look! Light direct from the flash also comes from the unnatural direction directly in line with your forehead. As I've said here before, unless you're a miner, a dentist, or a surgeon wearing a headlamp, you never see ANYTHING in this kind of light!

If a room is too dark to take pictures without flash and you do have an external flash, bounce the flash toward a ceiling or wall. Professionals know that bounced light evenly illuminates a scene and so creates natural-looking light. Bouncing off a wall produces a beautiful window-type light.

If you don’t have an external flash, you can bounce the pop-up flash in your 35mm SLR camera, using — surprise — the Lightscoop®, which I invented to solve the ugly pop-up flash problem for amateurs and casual shooters. A mirror in the Lightscoop sends the light from the pop-up flash to a ceiling or wall and so lets family photojournalists create pro-like lighting without having to buy and learn to use expensive electronic equipment.

There are lots of other tricks you can learn from professional photojournalists. Even if you haven’t graduated to a 35mm SLR with a pop-up flash, you can try these methods of getting better candid pictures.
 
CANDID CAMERA
Patience is the family photojournalist’s reward. Hang out with your camera and visit for a while before starting to shoot. When people start to forget the camera is there, your pictures will be natural and lively.

Let people be themselves.  Don’t ask your kids (or parents, grandparents, friends, etc.) to pose—or allow them to strike a pose every time they see the camera. Instead, ask them to continue their painting project, rolling out the cookie dough, or whatever else they are doing. These are the kinds of candid moments that bring memories alive for future generations.

Indoors, using flash ensures you can stop the action in candid photos. Remember to bounce the flash to avoid that awful harsh look and deep shadows that make typical flashed photos so ugly.

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
Finally, visit KobreGuide.com to the web's best multimedia and video journalism, which officially launched this month. We're still working out some kinks, but we think you will find the stories we are finding well worth the visit. I'm also blogging there, which has put a serious dent into blogging HERE!