How do I take pictures without the flash?

zxcvbnm

New member
This might sound ridiculous, but I need to know how to take pictures on my digital camera without the flash. I have a Pentax K100D and when I use the flash indoors, everything turns out all bleached and bright. I don't know everything about this camera, I'm fairly new to photography, so I'm sure this could be fixed with some adjusting. But for now, I need to know how to turn it off. It pops up automatically. Is it possible to keep it on a day setting without the flash coming on? If I put it on the 'NIGHT' setting, which is the only one that never requires flash, everything turns out all orange. I just want to take pictures of things exactly as they are, which I didn't think would be so difficult.
 
You are trying to fly an aircraft without any training or practice.

You really need to take at least a weekend class in photography to learn about using your cameras light meter to get a proper exposure and how to set up your flash on your camera so you do not over expose the shot (as is happening to you) and use the right flash sync shutter speed used by your camera.

The fact that the flash is automatically "popping" up shows that your are using the "program" mode (a DSLR version of P&S technique) The same when you use the Night mode, a hold over from P&S technique.

Dig into your cameras owner manual and practice using the aperture priority mode for a while without flash and learn how to use the white balance as well as ISO choices to shoot without flash at shutter speeds fast enough to prevent image blur (caused by the camera or subject moving at slow shutter speeds)
 
Have you read the manual for your camera? That's always a good place to start. It will run you through all the features on your camera and how to use them.

Cameras are very complex, not intuitive, technologies so you may have to do a bit of "studying" and practice the different features as you read along in the manual until you get a handle on your camera. There are a number of tradeoffs you can make in most cameras with aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings to get the exposure you want w/out using a flash.

If you are in Auto Mode, then the camera is thinking for you and it will pop the flash up to compensate for what it thinks is low light. The manual will tell you which settings to use so that you can control the exposure. You also may need to buy a book on photographic exposure, check one out of the library or take an intro course to get the principles under your belt (some of it is very math oriented, if you're into that at all).

You may also discover some very neat features and effects you can achieve if you read the manual.

Per your specific question, have you read the bit in the manual about Flash that starts on pg. 154? Start there. Good luck!
 
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