Readers Write: G2 Barbie Shot Mix-Up?

One of our readers recently e-mailed us with a query:

Hello DigitalVersus! [...] I'm currently looking for a new camera. I was doing a bit of research last night when I came across the G2 in the product face-off, and there's one thing I just don't understand. The photos 'Barbie: Full Size with Flash' and 'Barbie: Full Size without Flash' look to be the wrong way round, as the one you've labelled 'Without Flash' looks much brighter, and also shows the doll's shadow behind it. If I'm not mistaken, that shadow wouldn't be there on a photo taken without the flash. I hope you find my observation useful. [...]

Seeing this instantly sent us into panic mode: did we get it wrong?


Well, no actually, we didn't! We had another look at the original photos, checked the EXIF metadata, and it seems that there's nothing afoot at all. Plus, the face-off pictures taken by the G10—a camera that's technologically identical to the G2—show the same phenomenon, as the photo taken without a flash again looks brighter. The shadow is actually caused by the lighting in the room, as one halogen bulb to the left of the scene causes the shadow to fall slightly to the right of Barbie's head. The shadow created by the flash, which can be seen under Barbie's chin in the left-hand photo, doesn't fall at an angle as the camera is pointing straight at her head.

Each camera handles flash and flash-free photography differently as each camera is programmed in a different way. Here, we can imagine that for a photo with flash, the G2 considers it perfectly normal for the background to be all filled in, so it concentrates on correctly exposing 'visible' parts of the scene, like Barbie's face. With no flash, however, the camera probably tries to balance out the scene by exposing the background to try and pick out more detail. This in turn overexposes the face and makes it look bright.

The data also shows that the photo taken without flash was shot at 400 ISO, f/5.6 and 1/6 sec. This exposure is a little on the high side and, under the same conditions, other cameras typically won't expose pictures as much as can be seen here. At the same sensitivity setting, the Olympus E-PL1, for example, selects a slightly wider aperture (f/4.9) and a slightly slower shutter speed (1/20 sec), which makes for a whole 1 EV difference! With the flash off, the E-PL1 prioritises Barbie's face, just like when taking a picture with the flash. This makes the background look solid black.

Choosing how to balance the foreground and the background is a real problem for camera manufacturers, as only the photographer ever really knows what needs to be prioritised in any one photo. In our test, the effect outlined above is further highlighted by the striking difference in brightness between Barbie and the surrounding walls of our dark room. This forces the camera into making the tricky decision of trying to save some of the background or totally sacrificing it.

In practice, this decision is usually a little less complicated, as the contrast between the background and foreground is generally less marked than in our test set-up. In the end though, the photographer will often have to correct the exposure manually to be sure to obtain the perfect picture.

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