No flash required.

Now that I've gone mirrorless with my primary (and only) camera, DSLR cameras look downright gigantic to me.

My stepdaughter attended her first prom, and so of course piles of photos were taken.  When we arrived to meet her date and her friends, there were 2 other photographers present.  Both Canon shooters -- one had a battery grip and flash mounted to the hot shoe.  The other guy had a lower end model, maybe a T3i (looked like it from a distance, but I didn't ask).

It struck me how huge these cameras were.  Both were shooting with on-camera flash.  At least the first guy had enough sense to bounce his flash off the ceiling, but the 2nd guy was blasting his flash straight at the subjects.

I happened to get one shot that fired at the same instant as one of their flashes, and the photo was completely flat and lifeless.  The rest of my shots were taken with natural light (and there was plenty).  I think the skin tones I got sans-flash were lovely.

I'm not knocking flash photography - never in life.  But for me - and many people would argue differently - if you can't get the flash off the camera, the only other option is natural light.

Here are a few pix from that afternoon.