Low light picture advice needed

[olivier_verloove]

Hello,

I've just bought my first digital camera (Canon Ixus v3/230) and I would like to get your advices for taking pictures in low light.
I took a few pictures in a pub in Ireland and I'm not very happy with the results:
- the pictures taken with the flash light are too bright, not warm enough to reflect the warm ambiance of the pub
- the pictures taken without flash light are too dark or fuzzy (because of the slow shutter speed)
I took those pictures in fully automatic mode so I would like to know how to enhance those type of pictures in the future.

In manual mode, I could change different parameters:
- ISO speed: my camera can go up to 400 ISO but I heard that you are getting "digital noise" How do we recognize this digital noise ?
- white balance: I'm not sure which is the best setting for every type of environment ?

Should I modify any other parameter?

If you have any link to websites with this kind of advices for digital photography, it would be nice.

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards.
Olivier

[jonnaro]

i would try different ISO speeds.. the higher the ISO, the faster the shutter speed. (ex. if you need a 1/10 shutter at ISO 50, then ISO 100 you would need a 1/20, and ISO 200 you would need a 1/40 etc...). It is true there is more noise, as the ISO increases sensitivity of the CCD, but I would still play with it, as noise is better in some cases instead of blurring.

Don't think white balance has anything to do with your problem - that is more for color balance- but play with some settings and see if you're happier with the result.

The important thing with digital to remember is that you have nothing to lose with playing with different settings.

[jimwong]

yes, set your ISO to 400 so you can get a better shutter speed which might take care of the blurring. Using the built in flash does take out the natural lighting of the interior.

get one of these small table tripods. set your camera on it and let the camera shoot in P, but turn off the flash, then , enable the timer, then press the shutter. this will eliminate shake from your pressing on the shutter release button. The people might be still slightly blurred but everything else wil be in sharp focus and sort of natural..