>>> Step your aperture a bit to cut the background light, and use a flash.
>> 1. What's an aperture? [No GLaDDOS jokes please.]
> 
> The aperture on a camera is a hole or an opening through which light
> is admitted. Besides letting in more or less light it controls the
> depth of field. A small aperture gives a greater depth of field. It is
> also referred to as the f number or stops. I assume that Sabrina meant
> for you to decrease the aperture to cut down the total light entering
> the camera and use the flash as a fill in light. You would need to use
> your camera in manual mode as in automatic it would increase the
> exposure time to compensate.

Right. So sharp images require bright illumination and/or a long shutter 
time?

Did I mention that my camera really struggles to produce a visible image 
except in the most blindingly brilliant sunshine? Seriously, you can use 
it as a webcam, but unless you're standing with a laptop next to 
Stonehenge at noon on the Summer Solstice, the image just comes out dark 
brown. My camera just seems to have a superlatively insensitive light 
detector...

>> 2. Will a flash make any difference in an outdoor scene shot from a 
>> distance of 25 feet?
> 
> One can only suck it and see. 

Hey, I'm just glad I got the whole of me in shot that time.

In order to take these pictures, I had to find an object of 
approximately the correct height, balance the camera on it, align the 
camera to where I think I'm going to stand, set it to timer mode, press 
the button, walk over to the spot I think it's aimed at, strike a pose, 
wait for the camera to shoot, walk back to the camera and check the shot.

Needless to say, I got bored of this very quickly. The 2nd shot is the 
best image I managed to get all day. :-/ And even then I had to crop it 
to get the right parts into shot. (It would have helped if the camera 
was at head height rather than knee height!)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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