Using Fill Flash

While most of the times, mode 'Auto' on your camera will pick the right level of flash for a shot, there are some times when your camera doesn't think it needs more lighting, since it's already seeing plenty of light coming in. If the light's coming from behind your subject, however, your subject will be something closely resembling a silhouette, while the background is perfectly lit. In these situations, you'll need to provide a bit of light from the front, over-riding what your camera thinks is best. In this case, you're using 'Fill Flash' - called such because you're 'filling in' the light that the environment hasn't provided.

Used right, the results can be quite stunning - as I hope the photo above (my personal all-time favourite) shows (I hope!)