A common affliction of photos taken with a built-in flash-whether that flash is built-in to a film camera or a digital one-is flash washout. It can be caused by your camera being too close to a subject or its auto exposure metering being fooled by a particular lighting situation. In this video produced by the New York Institute of Photography, the "Photo Chick" suggests one way to handle the problem.



There are other ways to deal with this challenge. Here are seven recommendations from the digital Photography School.

• Put more distance between you and your subject.
• Difuse the light from your flash with tissue paper.
• Redirect the light by placing a white card at an angle under the flash.
• If your camera has it, shoot in night mode.
• If your camera has it, reduce the flash's output.
• Add light to the scene.
• Tinker with the camera's ISO, aperture and shutter settings.