History Main / BlindingCameraFlash

SubTrope of BlindedByTheLight. Compare WeaponizedCamera where this effect may be exploited in a combat situation.

* Accidentally happens in ''WesternAnimation/{{Hoodwinked}}'' when Twitchy takes one of these photos in the Wolf's face. "Would you put that away?! It's covert, no flash!" Twitchy promptly puts the flash bulb away. He then accidentally swallows the bulb, and the next time he opens his mouth it flashes in Red's face.

* Weaponized in ''Literature/DebtOfHonor'', when Clark and Chavez, posing a geologists, are tasked with capturing a dangerous African warlord (an {{Expy}} of Mohammed Farrah Aidid of Somalia) while surrounded by the warlord's men. Chavez pulls out what looks like a specialized light system, claiming that it's for photography, and then asks to take a picture of the warlord. The flash is so bright that everyone standing within range is incapacitated for about 5 minutes, more than enough time for Clark and Chavez to tie up all the guards. [[spoiler: It's later used to save the Japanese Prime Minister, but because it was intended for an outdoor environment, Chavez gets dazed by the flash himself. It's also used as a ''directed'' weapon to blind two pilots at a critical moment of landing, from a distance of several hundred feet, causing both planes to crash.]]

* In the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk and the Bully", when Monk and Natalie follow Roderick Brody's wife to a bar, Monk tries to take a photo with a very old and out-of-date camera. Due to the dim lighting, he installs a flash cube. To take the picture in question, he has Natalie stand a spoon on its end and photographs the reflection. Of course, the result is a flash bright enough that it causes Monk and Natalie, and possibly the audience, to squint their eyes for a few seconds to counteract the sudden brightness.

* The ''WebVideo/{{React}}'' episode about an '90s camera has several of the kids try to take a selfie. Needless to say, they find out why this didn't catch on until the invention of cell phone cameras.

* This happens in an episode of Creator/TheBBC's kids' show ''Kerwhizz'', when contestant Ninki is trying out her new camera on her canine companion Pip, much to his annoyance.

* WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther, in the short "Smile Pretty, Say Pink!", mistakes a case of camera flash bulbs for eggs and swallows them. Every time he hiccups, he goes off in a flash from the bulbs, blinding a bear in a cave and, after entering a photographer's dark room, ruining the photographer's negatives.

* In the ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' episode with Woody and Kelly's wedding, Cliff's camera had an ultra-bright flash.

** In ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'', [[spoiler:[[EldritchAbomination Bel-Shamharoth]] is defeated]] from the flash of Twoflower's iconograph going off. As a bonus there's even a photograph later, it's mostly of Rincewind's thumb with a few tentacles waving around at the edges.
** Exaggerated by Otto von Chriek ever since his introduction in ''Discworld/TheTruth''. He's a vampire who loves photography. As a result, whenever he takes a flash photo, it results in his ''demise'' until blood is poured on his ashes. He's tried a few solutions, but not using the flash hasn't been one of them.

* ''Film/TheJewelOfTheNile''. One of the Sufi takes a picture of a guard, then everyone slips by while he's rubbing his eyes.

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* The obnoxious reporter in "The Model Teacher" subjects ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'' to several.
* In an episode of ''{{Series/CSI}}'' where the VictimOfTheWeek was a celebrity, Al Robbins, the coroner, caught a paparazzi in the morgue trying to photograph the corpse. He tried to use this to escape...Dr. Robbins [[SubvertedTrope was having none of it]] and tripped him over [[HandicappedBadass with his cane]] before calling security.
* In the ''{{Series/Cheers}}'' episode with Woody and Kelly's wedding, Cliff's camera had an ultra-bright flash.
* Also happened in Cheers's spin-off ''{{Series/Frasier}}'', with Martin Crane's infamous "Scheerblad 7XK", which is described by Niles and Frasier as, "the Blindingest, Noisiest, 15lbs Camera, ever produced in the former Soviet Union!" and "The Old Flash and Wind", respectively. The flash is so strong, it practically pushed people backwards from the force of it. At one point Frasier even uses the flash to escape an awkward moment when he blabs to Daphne about some of Niles's old flames before her; using the momentary explosion of light to blind his family as he runs like a girl out the door. The episode's credits, show many photos taken with the camera, in which everybody pictured is washed out, screaming, with their eyes bugging out of their heads. The final picture being Frasier with a crazed and furious look on his face, charging Martin to grab and presumably destroy the offending camera

* In the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk and the Bully," when Monk and Natalie follow Roderick Brody's wife to a bar, Monk tries to take a photo with a very old and out-of-date camera. Due to the dim lighting, he installs a flash cube. To take the picture in question, he has Natalie stand a spoon on its end and photographs the reflection. Of course, the result is a flash bright enough that it causes Monk and Natalie, and possibly the audience, to squint their eyes for a few seconds to counteract the sudden brightness.

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* Weaponized in ''Literature/DebtOfHonor'', when Clark and Chavez, posing a geologists, are tasked with capturing a dangerous African warlord (an {{Expy}} of Mohammed Farrah Aidid of Somalia) while surrounded by the warlord's men. Chavez pulls out what looks like a specialized light system, claiming that it's for photography, and then asks to take a picture of the warlord. The flash is so bright that everyone standing within range is incapacitated for about 5 minutes, more than enough time for Clark and Chavez to tie up all the guards.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cameraflashfootball.png]]]]

* In the WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} cartoon "How to Play Football", a player is blinded by flashbulbs and fumbles the ball. He scores only because no one else can catch the ball, and he eventually stumbles upon it at the goal line.

** In the first season finale "It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog", Dr. Eggman takes a picture of himself with Shadow, but this trope happens and Shadow is blinded long enough for Sonic to recover and defeat Shadow.

* WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther mistakes a case of camera flash bulbs for eggs and swallows them. Every time he hiccups, he goes off in a flash from the bulbs, blinding a bear in a cave and, after entering a photographer's dark room, ruining the photographer's negatives (short "Smile Pretty, Say Pink!").

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', your character being blinded by one on his birthdays as a child is used to transition to the next point of your character's childhood/the tutorial.

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* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive''

* The ''WebVideo/{{React}}'' episode about an '90s camera has several of the kids try to take a selfie. Needless to say, they find out why this didn't catch on until the invention of cell phone cameras.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cameraflashfootball.png]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Series/{{Monk}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blinding_camera_flash_8917.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Say "cheese!"]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]

* Pictured above: in the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk and the Bully," when Monk and Natalie follow Roderick Brody's wife to a bar, Monk tries to take a photo with a very old and out-of-date camera. Due to the dim lighting, he installs a flash cube. To take the picture in question, he has Natalie stand a spoon on its end and photographs the reflection. Of course, the result is a flash bright enough that it causes Monk and Natalie, and possibly the audience, to squint their eyes for a few seconds to counteract the sudden brightness.

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* At the very beginning of ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'', just right after capturing Nemo, the scuba diver takes a picture of Marlin, the flash stunning Marlin and preventing him from going after his son.
* Accidentally happens in ''WesternAnimation/{{Hoodwinked}}'' when Twitchy takes one of these photos in the Wolf's face. "Would you put that away?! It's covert, no flash!" Twitchy promptly puts the flash bulb away.

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* The scanner enemies in ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}'' do this if you're looking at them when they photograph you (this is pretty much the only hazard they pose, apart from occasionally giving your position away to a strider).

* On top of museums banning photography (usually flash) to sell their own momentos, there's the problem of this. You're bound to have someone take a flash photograph every minute or so, dizzying everyone present. There's also the fact that, in the case of precious paintings and other valuable displays, lots and lots of flash photography can wear out colors.

* The ''WebVideo/{{React}}'' episode about an '80s camera has several of the kids try to take a selfie. Needless to say, they find out why this didn't catch on until the invention of cell phone cameras.

SubTrope of BlindedByTheLight. Compare WeaponizedCamera for the exploited version of this trope.

SubTrope of BlindedByTheLight.

* ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'' can give the player a camera which will stun enemies (or kill them if they're weak enough); when used on the indestructible Ghost, it causes him to pause briefly and pose.