The way I do it is with the equipment I buy...I shoot with a Canon 10D and use both the 550 and the smaller 420 EZ flash series. These flashes are created to work flawlessly (well, almost always flawlessly) with the camera. I put the flash on, set my asa, set my aperature and set my shutter speed on the camera then fire away...the flash gives the correct output to light the scene without blowing things out.
Your inboard flash works just as well, too!
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Emily L. Ferguson
mailto:elf@xxxxxxxx 508-563-6822
New England landscapes, wooden boats and races, press photography http://www.vsu.cape.com/~elf/