Need advise - Party photos

[ketan]

Hi,
I am a newbee with digital photography. I use S50.
I tried to take photos and an indoor function.
Unfortunitely, photos with flash came out bit dark, as it was a large area and the ones I took with AV mode ( at shutter speed determined by camera appx 0.5-1sec) came out in excellent exposure but blurry because of moving objects
I have come to conclusion that take sharper phots with high speed and then edit the way one want on PC.
Shall appreciate advise.
Thanks

[pblevitt]

Try using the night shot mode, with flash at 2nd curtain (cannot remember if it can be set in that mode), distance may be blurred but you shoud get a sharp near range.

Sometimes using a different setting from the noe advised can give suprisingly good results.

eg, I often use landscape mode for sunsets, and seem to get a better pic then when I try most other settings. I suppose practice makes perfect.

[stopbath]

The flash that comes with most compact cameras (and SLRs) are fantastic for short ranges, but suffer dearly when called for duty in a large room. With each foot to the subject, the light from your flash will decrease in value. Using the night shot mode will allow any ambient light to fill in from the flash, but you'll get ghost movement as people mill about.

Try using a higher ISO or wider aperture, or get closer to get those shots. (As you get closer, your chance of red-eye will increase.) If still no go, try an external flash with a higher guide number.

[lcfred]

And you can try to underexpose a litle -1 EV to accelerate the shutter preventing the "shaking" effect and adjust it in post processing phase (but remember if you use a high ISO it'll be full of noise)