The camera lies

If you didn't know already, when you use flash you capture a moment in time. The extra light means that you don't need a wide aperture, the shutter opens and closes quickly and you generally get a brighter photo. You can see the brighter picture on the left was taken with flash.

The difference between the two photos is that flash wasn't used on the right, but to get enough light into the camera there had to be a slow shutter speed - too slow to let me hold the camera so it had to be on a tripod. In fact both were taken with the camera on a tripod. This allows for ambient light to be used in the photo. Just look at the difference in the lights. There is a saying that the camera never lies but you don't get a true picture of the lighting whenever you use flash. Finally, did you notice the right hand? With long exposures movements become blurs, giving the impression that the camera couldn't catch the image.

Happy snapping