Bright midday sun is a terrible time for photographing people. Harsh light, heavy shadows, "raccoon eyes", and the heat all make for bad pictures. The secret to success is to find some shade.

The overhang of a building or a spot under a tree are great places to start. Meter for the ambient light and underexpose by 2 stops. Set your flash for proper exposure at your new aperture and start shooting.

He even uses a second flash (snooted) on the background to show texture and give some separation from the model. Read the entire article on Controlling Daylight over at Strobist.

Simple.  Effective.  Beautiful!

The Lighting 101 series from Strobist (link is to the PDF file) shows you the tools and techniques used by a professional photojournalist, David Hobby. Every day his job requires him to come back with the shot, no matter what.

The Lighting 101 series was started last year and explains about your flash and what you can do with a few simple addons. In the PDF you’ll learn:

• how to get the most out of your flash
• using umbrellas for soft light
• snoots and other tools you can build yourself
• using remote firing devices
• lighting for portraits, basketball games, macro and more

Visit the Strobist website and you’ll see David is full into Lighting 102 and exploring more about small flashes and using them creatively. The site is chock full of good info on lighting.

If you click the link at the top of the page for Midwest Photo you can see the kits they’ve put together just for fans of Strobist. You’ll also find a (much) less expensive radio remote system called the Cactus V2, if you’re not ready to spring for the Pocket Wizards.

You can also check out this collection on Pbase by Tang. Similar style to Bruce, but it appears there’s more manipulated images from Tang. His stuff looks way cool too.

So, how is this done? First, you have to head over to Pier 1 or your local head shop for some incense. Try a few different ones, but get scents that you like.

Next, you need a room with still air. Shut off the AC or heat; you want to control the puffs of air that create the waves in the smoke. A wave of your hand is enough. A black background and a flash complete the package. (the white background images are negatives. Invert in PS with CTRL-I)

Different colors can be achieved using gels over your flash or by working the image in Photoshop. Levels, Hue / Saturation, Colorize, play with Layer Blending modes; try them all. You’ll be surprised at all that you can do.

Next time you’re cooped up in the house for a day or two, try some smoke photos.

Who is most susceptible to redeye? Well, kids under the age of five, blonde haired blue eyed people (like my niece above), and of course animals get that dreaded yellow or green eye. Or what some people call "devil eyes".

Using the Redeye function of your flash will work perhaps 80% of the time, but it’s not without problems. Some cameras have a big delay between the preflash and the burst that actually takes the picture. Some people will blink from the preflash or they turn their heads thinking the shot is done.

Tell people you’re using the Redeye function and have them hold still for an extra second or two.

Fix it forever

Photo editing software – Whether you use Picasa, Photoshop Elements, Photoshop CSx, Lightroom, or virtually any other program, they all have a tool for fixing redeye. With a couple of clicks you can remove the redeye. Save the file and never touch it again.

The absolute best solution to eliminate redeye is to use off-camera flash. (P&S users don’t really have this option. You’ll be correcting in software.) Using off-camera flash will require a cord or a wireless function in your flash and camera, but this will certainly eliminate redeye.

Having the flash off to the side or above the camera creates a larger angle of reflectance. In simple terms, the light is not reflected back into the lens and therefore no redeye.

The other way to eliminate redeye is to use bounce flash. You can do this with your flash mounted on top of the camera (not the popup, but an addon flash). Angle the flash head and bounce the light off the ceiling or side wall. Indirect light will give you more pleasing, soft light and solve the redeye dilemma.

You can also use any of the bounce cards or diffusers from Stofen or Lumiquest. They’re cheap, effective and very useful.

The first, and easiest, thing you can do is to use Bounce flash. Obviously, your popup or built in flash won’t do this. You’ll need and external flash with tilt and swivel ability. Bounce the light off a ceiling or side wall and let your camera’s auto system regulate the flash output. Just stay fairly close to the wall or ceiling. Twenty foot high ceilings don’t work!

Popup flashes on Digital SLRs can be softened by the Soft Screen from Lumiquest. This 4×4 inch panel works fairly well at reducing harsh shadows.

For your external flash check out all the products from Lumiquest and Stofen. The Lumiquest bounce cards and softboxes are inexpensive and quite effective. The Stofen Omnibounce has been a favorite tool of photojournalists for many years.

Try one of these products and you’re certain to see much more pleasing results in your flash photos.

Ringlight flashes have been used for many years by macro photographers. They are circular flash tubes that are meant to be used on the front of your lens. Since light is hitting the subject from all directions, there’s virtually no shadows. Then you can see all the details of the bugs you’re shooting.

If you look at Nikon’s latest offering for a ringlight you’ll find the R1C1, which uses a ring that holds multiple mini flash units. You can stick with the standard configuration of one left and one right (watch any CSI show and you’ll see them using this setup), or add more as needed. You can change the power of each unit to create shadows and give some depth to your subject. And it’s wireless.

A number of years ago, some photo genius decided this would make a great lighting tool for fashion and glamour photogs. They just had to make a bigger and more powerful unit. Soft shadowless light in one unit! And if you put someone up against the wall, you get a shadow all the way around them. Cool and unique. Check out the AlienBees site for details on one of the best ringlights available.

Give a read of the Strobist article on ring flashes and check out the DIY details linked there. Try building one of these and take some family portraits or chase down bugs in the backyard. Personally, I’m going to try the Tupperware version described here.

You’ll have another tool in your photo arsenal to make your pictures different than anyone else on the block.

In the Strobist article, David goes through metering the ambient light and then starts using his flash at the standard camera settings. Every camera has a Flash Sync Speed; the highest shutter speed that can be used with a flash. Most cameras automatically set to this speed (1/60, 1/125, 1/200 or whatever it is) when you turn on your flash. Works great for the flash, but underexposed the background.

As you read this article you’ll see that slower shutter speeds reveal brighter and brighter backgrounds. When using your flash it’s the Aperture that makes the exposure. All the shutter really does is open up fully so the flash can fire. It’s important that you understand this as it let’s you know that you have control over how the background looks.

One thing you’ll find on many flashes is a Balanced Flash setting or maybe Slow Sync. Both of these are automatic ways to render more ambient light. Read your manual though as Slow Sync may set a very slow shutter speed that would require using a tripod. I’d suggest that you just use Manual exposure mode to control your camera.

Check out the Strobist article here and go try this method. Use it regularly and you’ll see much improved flash shots.

Be sure to pay attention to what David says about exposure. By using Manual exposure and changing the shutter speed you are controlling the look of the background. One key principle of flash photography is that the Aperture controls the exposure for the flash. All the shutter does is open up fully for the flash to fire.

Try this for yourself one evening. Set the camera to Manual exposure. Meter the scene and use an aperture of F4 or F5.6 to start. Turn on your flash and set it to TTL, iTTL for Nikons, ETTL for Canons, or just auto mode. Shoot at the metered shutter speed and also at one or two speeds up or down the scale. Note the difference in the background.

The primary point of this Strobist article is that you have control over the background and can make it light and airy or dark and moody. Users choice. Armed with a little knowledge and an external flash on your DSLR, you have lots of freedom to get the image in your mind recorded on the digital sensor.

Be sure to check the example shots of the open hard drive. The photogs method of positioning one light at a time is a great way to 1) learn about light and 2) see the effect the second or third light has on any other light source. Position – shoot. Position -reshoot. Nice and easy.

Back in my camera selling days I’d have folks buy studio lighting systems with 3 lights for shooting portraits of their kids. I’d ALWAYS encourage them to start with and learn to use ONE light. They looked at me like I was daft. Of course I’d always see them a week or so later with some sample pictures. The questions would always be something like “How can I get rid of all those ugly shadows?” Hmmmm. I wonder…

The Matchbox car shot is a great example of how a single flash, normally thought to be a hard light source, is a soft light source. It’s all because of the size of the subject in relation to the light source. Simply using a piece of paper over the flash serves to diffuse it even more.

David goes on to talk about using studio umbrellas for soft light. He also touches on the fact that you can bounce the flash off a ceiling or side wall in order to get soft light. So many ways to achieve similar results.

The bottom of the article has links to his Lighting 101 series. Read the Umbrellas and Bouncing off Walls articles to refresh your knowledge on these subjects.