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Mile
03-10-2010, 11:13pm
is there a way to adjust the flash on my canon 550d? i dont really like to use it alot of the time because it can be too bright and give an un-natural white light. a touch at times would be great if i could.
Wobbles
04-10-2010, 10:30am
is there a way to adjust the flash on my canon 550d? i dont really like to use it alot of the time because it can be too bright and give an un-natural white light. a touch at times would be great if i could.

Mile,
I assume you are talking about the built in "pop-up" flash? You can have a try "modifying" it by wrapping a piece of tissue or wax paper around the flash, held on with an elastic band. If the effect is what you're after there are a number of "commercial" diffusers (look on ebay) available. By it's nature the pop-up is a small and intense light source, prone to either too bright or too dark images and the dreaded Red-Eye! That is when it's used as the primary light source, it can be quite effective as a "fill-flash" though.

Flash photography is an art in itself and lots of people struggle with it! As a general rule, when it comes to flash, "bigger is better" and furthest away from the axis of the lens is also best. The most versatile option is to buy an external flash eg. 430EXII, this will give you a variety ofcreative solutions eg. "bounce", "off-camera", flash compensation/power adjustment etc. that can be used to eliminate all the problems associated with the built in unit.

Cheers
John
ameerat42
04-10-2010, 10:48am
Flash Exposure Compensation, via buttons at the back. Also see manual flash settings.
Am.
RaoulIsidro
04-10-2010, 11:24am
On the LCD screen, go to Camera Setings Display (Quick Control Screen).
On the upper right of the screen you will see a lightning symbol with positve and negative icons. This is the Flash Exposure Compensation icon used to control the amount of flash on your camera. Learn how to adjust the settings by using the buttons, and take a few pictures of the same view using different levels.
Be sure to set the icon setting back to zero "0" when finished.
Mile
04-10-2010, 10:16pm
great responses there, i will try all of the above.