Lesson Learned: Don't Be Afraid of On-Camera Flash

I don't like blasting people in the face with on-camera flash, because it gives them a deer caught in the headlights look. For this reason, when I use on-camera flash, I like to bounce the light off a ceiling. In this case, that wasn't an option, because my friends and I were outside. Instead of hitting people directly with the flash, I turned it off and hoped that the ambient light, slow exposure time, wide aperture, and high ISO would be enough to properly expose everyone's faces. As you can see above, my friends were underexposed and Brigham's face is almost completely hidden by his hat. Thankfully, I switched gears later and started using my flash. The photos don't look great, but at least you can see everyone's face. Below is a clearer shot of Brigham. You can see more photos from that evening here.