Fill Flash

[NeverASummer]

I was out in the yard taking pictures trying to learn more about my flash. I took a series of shots and immediatly noticed i liked the picture much more when the flash was on. It really lowered the amount of stops? required to take the picture (i forget what it is called... the difference between the brightest color and the darkest.. the picture was outside the dynamic range? of the camera). I started to screw around with exposure compensation on the flash, but it seemed like it didnt make a difference. I tried -1, 0, 1, and 2. All the shots were shot at 1/60 f/3.5 and really looked almost the same accept for 0 which was shot at 1/25 f/3.5 which had blown out highlights and dark shadows. So im wondering what was going on..... if i was using a fill flash wrong... maybe it was too bright out (there were big puffy cumulous clouds, the sun was behind them most of the time). The picture was of a bushy flowering plant from a distance of about 1 or two feet. I thought initially it was just the lower shutter speed (0 flash compensation has the camera shoot at 1/25 f/3.5) but after thinking about it i dont think is is.. so here i am asking about it.

[NeverASummer]

Just a bit more info.... I have a Canon G9, and its the flash that is on the camera. Maybe the flash isnt anything special so it didnt make a difference? The histograms look nearly the same. But there is a TINY difference mostly at the peaks... lines are closer together and more bunched up or just ltos of little lines..