Daylight light balancing

This is referred to as fill-flash, to light up the areas that may be in the shadows of an otherwise brightly lit scene. This can also be done off camera, though it is important to know if you intend to use the flash as the main light or the fill light. This is when the synch speed of your flash is important, because outdoor exposures on sunny days are often 1/1000 or shorter. On the Pentax, you need to use the P-TTL in order to synch above 180. (note: High speed synch is a series of short pulses as opposed to one flash discharge. These short pulses have limited range)



When done properly, the flash should be subtle and almost unnoticeable.

Here you can see almost the exact same photo with and without fill flash as I took two photos in succession and the flash did not have time to recharge in between. I have found that the on-camera flash lacks the necessary power to light someone in the shade such as under a tree and still maintain the proper exposure for a bright background. This means the annoyance of carrying the additional flash can't even really be avoided on a very sunny day.



Here is a particularly glaring example of needing the light balancing flash.