Tips for great small group pictures

[love811]

Hi everyone! Am using a powershot a75. Could you give me tips so that I can take great indoor shots of small groups of people (around 5-10 people?). Is it wise to use the center auto focus even if it is a group or is it better to use the 9 point AiAf? I know that if I am taking single shots of persons or things, it is better to turn off the AiAf as per suggestion of our other friends here ... Also, when I bought my powershot a75, it took darker images than what I was used to (my digicam before was a Sony Mavica-FD75 which took a bit overexposed images) so I adjusted the setting to +2/3 exposure. You can try viewing the pictures I took with that setting at http://photos.yahoo.com/love_811

[love811]

Oh, by the way, let me know what you think of the pictures that I took ... if they are a bit overexposed and should just go automatic? Am on the P mode and exposure is set to +2/3 and almost everything else is on auto

[Pugdaddy]

Love. You have some beautiful kids there. Your shots are looking good. I'm just a begginer but let me make a suggestion or two. I notice that almost all of your shots are posed and are centered. Try to catch your kids playing and when they're not looking snap them. Also, realize that the flashes on these cameras suck. I very rarely run across a shot that I've taken in a low light area with my flash on that I like. Try to get more sunlight into the room that your shooting in. Even if you use the flash for fill your pics will get a warmer look to them.
Last but not least is the rule of thirds. If you don't know what that is I'm sure you'll find it in somewhere like morguefiles.com (classroom) or some sight that teaches photography. It will make your pics look much more appealing.
Otherwise, I think your pics are looking great. The brightness looks fine to me.

[Geeeyejo]

Lovely family! I would play with the settings (try auto and play with the various exposure levels to see what you like best) I thought the photos on yahoo looked good - perhaps some a little over exposed. My S1 has some focus issues in lower indoor light, so I created a custom hyperfocal setting to shoot all my indoor shots (manual focus at 8 ft, f5.6, iso 50, flash on) I lost the ability to zoom with this setting but went from maybe 25% of indoor in focus to 100% If you do use auto, check the exif information (use windows my documents, right click and check properties) for what the camera defaulted to - you can see what settings produced the best results and vice versa...