Take Night Photos, Understand Focal Lengths, and More

Do you have any directions for making a homemade flash reflector I saw some directions once, but can't remember where I had found them.--Barry Bowman, Staten Island, New York

Sure thing. A flash reflector--commonly called a bounce card--lets you diffuse the light from your camera's flash to avoid harsh and cold illumination. As I've mentioned before, you can bounce the light off the ceiling or use a bounce card, which diffuses and redirects the light from your flash. You can buy a flash card, but there's no need to. The Web is filled with instructions for free ones you can make yourself. Try, for example, a DIY bounce card at Make. Print the PDF, cut it out, and attach it to your flash with a rubber band. It works great.

Understanding Equivalent Focal Lengths

I am new to digital cameras and I have question that I can't wrap my head around. I have read that the 35mm equivalent focal length of a digital camera is determined by the size of the sensor. For example, in How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera you state, "if this digital camera were a 35mm camera, its 9.3mm lens would give you the same picture as a 50mm camera." Would you please explain--Calvin S. Hall, Springvale, Maine

I'll give you a really simple explanation, Calvin. A lens's focal length is not an absolute measure of the "magnification" it delivers. Instead, the size of the image depends upon both the focal length of the lens and the size of the film or image sensor. For any given focal length, the smaller the image sensor, the higher the relative magnification of the image will be. Most digital camera sensors are smaller than a frame in a roll of 35mm film. So when you use any lens on a digital SLR, it will have a longer effective focal length than how it's marked, as compared to using the lens on a 35mm film camera.