Flash test

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With the easy availability of high quality, instantaneously available images from digital cameras, certain female celebrities now carry out a precautionary Flash Test before venturing into public wearing a new outfit to check for any risk of inadvertent exposure of flesh or underwear in strong lighting conditions, relying on the very high peak lighting values of a camera flashgun to simulate worst case lighting conditions. The need for Flash Tests rose to general attention when it was publicly cited on the Late Show With David Letterman on 16th April 2008 when Uma Thurman was presented by the host by a photograph of herself wearing a seemingly translucent dress that exposed a naked breast at London's Fashion Rocks in 2007, which she attributed ^[1] to not having had time for a Flash Test.

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A property of certain materials is that under varying lighting conditions their opacity will also change.

This can be of particular concern in the world of fashion where under strong light some garments become more translucent or transparent than under normal conditions; a famous example of this was the backlit photograph of Lady Diana Spencer, the soon to be Princess of Wales, in a garden in 1981, where her skirt had become partially translucent clearly revealing the outlines of her legs and underwear.