If your camera phone does not have flash and you want to take a picture at nighttime or in a dark location such as a restaurant, without sufficient ambient light, you will be lucky to get a recognizable picture.

However, if a friend, family member, or coworker has a camera phone with flash, or if they happen to be carrying a film or digital camera with flash, then with practice you can use their flash to take a picture!

How? And I'm not talking about disassembling their cell phone or camera and taking the flash out :)

Let someone else take a picture to disperse a burst of flash. If you time when you press your camera phone's shutter button VERY CAREFULLY and if your camera phone does not have much lag time between pressing the shutter and taking the exposure, you can actually take a picture while the others' flash bursts. In effect, you will end up 'borrowing' their flash to add light that can enhance your photo quality.

It may sound crazy, but I've performed this technique a couple of times in restaurants with decent results.

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