When you are shooting in low light situations such as indoors or in the evening, flashguns are generally used to add light, illuminating the subject and enhancing the quality of the photo.  Flashguns can also be used to create interesting shadows and illuminations to give a photograph depth, drama or clarity.  Photography lighting allows you to create just the shot that you want.  It is a wonderful tool and you should experiment with different placements of light, brighter light and lower light.  A flash can be a great fill when using a faster shutter speed in low light situations.  There is just no end to the ways that you can manipulate your photographs using light.

Direct Flash vs Bounced Flash
Your flashgun is extremely versatile.  Many have the capability to either deliver a direct flash or a bounced flash.  A direct flash give the photo hard shadows and the light is reflected on shiny surfaces.  On the other hand, a bounced flash eliminates the reflections and shadows, offering a warmer, more naturally lit shot.  There are several ways that you can bounce a flash.

Open your aperture
Increase your FEC +/- (Flash Exposure Compensation)
Set your flash to manual
Hold your flash in your hand or set it on a tripod

Bounce your flash off of a reflective surface such as the ceiling, a wall or even a white card or poster board.  Play around with both direct flash and bounced flash to find the techniques that work best with your equipment, your skills and your personal taste.  Just remember that when you are bouncing your flash, the surface that you are bouncing it off if may be father than your subject so the flash will need to be adjusted to compensate for the increased distance.  By increasing your flash you will ensure that you supply the amount of light that is required for the shot.

Flashguns
Flashguns are great for location shots because they are so portable and easy to use.  If you are shooting on location, you can simply set up a couple of flashguns on tripods and use them like you would pro lighting.  There are many different types and manufacturers out there.  When purchasing a flashgun, make sure that it is compatible with your camera.  While the major camera manufacturers such as Canon and Nikon market their own flashguns, you can find flashguns by other manufacturers.  Often, these are a more economical option.  Sunpack, Sigma and Metz are three popular brands that make flashguns that work with brand name cameras.

Pro Lighting
Professional lighting also offers a wide variety of options.  While a bit more expensive than flashguns, pro lighting can give you great shots, particularly in studio shoots.  You can purchase lights mounted on tripods, stands or that can be bracketed to a wall.  Because many of these lights are larger, they are often not as portable as their smaller flashgun cousins.  They can, however, all you to create dramatic effects and light a shot almost perfectly.

Lighting is a science that can be perfected so that shots are crisp and effects are created exactly to the photographer's liking.  Practice and experimentation are the keys to learning how to get that perfect shot.  The wonderful thing about the science of lighting is that it is highly versatile with many options regarding the source and how the light is manipulated.  All you need to do is get out there find out what works best with your equipment and you.

“Full Frame” refers to the size of the image sensor behind the lens in the camera that actually captures the image when you open the shutter.  Specifically, it refers to an image sensor that is the same shape and size as 35mm film frame that has been the photography standard for decades.  However, image sensors that size are more difficult and expensive to build.  Consequently, the majority of digital cameras—both amateur compact models and professional SLR models—use smaller image sensors.  The most common image sensor size among professional digital SLR cameras is the APS-C standard, which is roughly 57% smaller that the size of 35mm film. 

So, why should you care?  There are three reasons.  First, the quality of the picture is directly related to the size of the image sensor—the larger the image sensor, the better quality the picture.  Larger sensors capture images with a higher pixel count, greater color range, and less noise.  Smaller image sensors have a lower pixel count, producing noisier, grainier photographs, even at high speeds.

The second drawback to “half-frame” cameras applies mostly to professional photographers, but is a serious problem.  Professional photographers have several different types of specialty lenses (such as wide-angle, zoom, manual-focus, tilt/shift, etc.) that they can attach to their cameras.  These lenses, however, are currently intended for use with 35mm film cameras, and designed for the 35mm-sized frame format.  The problem is that the lens projects a light image the size of a 35mm frame—but the digital camera’s image sensor is smaller.  Consequently, it doesn’t capture the entire image—just the center.  The result is a zoom-in type of effect on the center of the image, with all four edges being cropped off.  This is known as the “crop factor”.  Professional Digital SLR cameras using the APS-C format sized image sensor will lose over half of the original image seen through the lens.  Commercial digital cameras (“compact” cameras) use tiny image sensors—some only about 1/30th (or 3%) the size of a 35mm frame—and will lose most of the image.  This effectively makes the expensive and highly useful specialty lenses worthless.  In contrast, a full-frame digital camera will capture the exact image seen through the specialty lenses.

The third problem, once again applying mostly to professional photographers, is that the dimensions of the image coming through the lens doesn’t match the dimensions of commercial image sensors.  The aspect ratio (the ratio of how wide to how high the frame is) of a 35mm film frame is 3:2, while the image sensor cheaper, commercial digital cameras have an aspect ratio of 4:3.  The resulting picture will not only be cropped on all sides, but will also have even more space cut off on the left and right sides of the photograph. 

Currently, Kodak, Canon, Nikon, and Sony all make full-frame digital camera.  Clearly, full-frame cameras interest mainly professional photographers and amateur enthusiasts, and thus tend to be expensive, high-end cameras.  Such cameras, however, are often loaded with advanced features, and are well worth the price tag.

Canon and Nikon both produce two types of full-frame DSRL cameras—a high-end, feature-rich professional type for several thousand dollars, and midrange type for amateur photographers that offer slightly fewer features at about half the price.  For example, the Nikon D3 FX, the high-end camera, boasts 12.1 MP, a speed of 9 frames per second, and a 51-point auto-focus system.  Nikon’s midrange camera, the D7000, offers almost the same features, but a slower speed of 5 frames per second—but that drops the price almost in half!  Canon has a similar story, with camera speed being the main difference between their high-end EOS-1Ds Mark III (5 fps) and their midrange 5D Mark II (fps).  The EOS-1Ds offers 5 frames per seconds.  The 5D can only offers 3 fps, but is roughly half the cost!