When using flash as the main light source, sometimes I was ending up with an overexposed subject and dark background.  A couple of weeks ago, I tried a technique called “dragging the shutter” which comes very handy to get the background better exposed or include more ambient light.

Normally, I shoot at 1/60-1/125 of a second with flash. But when I want more ambient light in a photograph, I drag my shutter down to around 1/15 of a second (the value depends on the available ambient light). By keeping the shutter open that fraction of a second longer, the camera is able to pick up more ambient light from the background, producing warmer photos with more detail. (more…)