how to take quality picture of indoor

[k@onahi]

i possess a IXUS 400
when taking indoor photo i will shut the flash.
as the result the focus become sensitive and it usually cause blur picture.
how can i fix this problem?

[Penguin_101_1]

Use the flash. Without the flash the camera will live the shutter open longer (1/60) to allow more light into the picture. I do not know if your camera has manual settings but one way to fix this would be in about 1/100 or 1/120. These pictures will turn out dark though.

[k@onahi]

but if i use the flash the background will become dark and the light only focus on people isnt it ?

[Penguin_101_1]

Depends what kind of lighting that you will have in the background. If you have low light in the background it will be dark. If you have bright light in the background then it will be bright. Also in manual you can control the intensity of the flash by thirds. You could try a 1/3 flash.

[mike j]

The IXUS400 does not have manual control over shutter speeds (apart from 1-15 secs for night shots), so you really do need to use the flash for indoor photography if you want a decent photo.

You can try taking pics in the automatic mode with the flash turned off and the quality of the photo will very much depend on the amount of light in the room. As Penguin says, if you do this the shutter will stay open for longer to compensate for the lack of light which will lead to blurry photos, especially if you're not using a tripod or your subjects are moving.

[mike j]

Depends what kind of lighting that you will have in the background. If you have low light in the background it will be dark. If you have bright light in the background then it will be bright. Also in manual you can control the intensity of the flash by thirds. You could try a 1/3 flash.

Unfortunately, there is no control over the flash brightness on the IXUS400 !

:(

[stopbath]

Light has an inverse relationship with distance. The more it travels the less bright it is (due to the light naturally spreading out - fibre optics don't allow the light to spread out, thus they don't loose intensity :) ) So if you use a light source (flash, room light) that is 5 feet away from the subject, and the background is 10 feet away, the background will get less light than the subject. Add to the mix a foreground subject and that will get even more light. :(

So, either set up the room with extra lights (to fill in the background), set up the camera with a tripod (to use available light) or accept the dark background. It is normal for a single flash to produce this result (due to light dispersion)

Note: some flashes can restrict the dispersion when zooming in (even compacts).

You can also use a higher ISO (if more grain is ok...)