Shutter Speed aka. Why are all my pictures blurry now?

Try turning the on board flash down 1 stop. Use you flash compensation to dial out some of the flash.

mai_lin wrote in post #4266865
Funny you should mention that - I was looking at the 430EX today.

You really do need a hotshoe flash for these sorts of situations. Just a few of the advantages over the flash built into the camera:

- Less "red eye" (because the flash will be farther from the lens)
- Longer range
- Faster recycle time
- Ability to angle the flash head up (e.g. for bounce flash off the ceiling)
- Autofocus assist light (it briefly shines a very unobtrusive red pattern to assist in focusing)

Some will also recommend faster prime lenses, but then you'll run into the issue that at large apertures the depth of field is extremely small. This is nice when you want it that way, but it's not always a good thing when someone's eyes are in focus but not their nose. Or even that one of their eyes is in focus while the other is not. So you'll still want the flash.

mai_lin wrote in post #4266582
Ok, here's the stats for this one:

Shootimg Mode: P
Shutter: 1/8
Aperture: 3.5
Metering: Partial
Exposure Comp: 0
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 18mm
Img: RAW
White Balance: Tungsten (I'd changed it for this one)
Pic Style: Standard

http://picasaweb.googl​e.com …t6IiQ#512990604​0165727362

Why is it I can't assign [IMG] tags to pictures in my picasa album?

[IMG]http://picasaweb.​google.com/mailin78/My​World/photo?authkey=bL​yHdHt6IiQ#512990604016​5727362[/IMG]

This is your photo ...you should click at the photo and right click the image ...and select properties ....it will show the URL ...copy and paste that between the [IMG] Tag here and your photo will came up just like below :

The correct URL should be :

http://lh4.google.com/​mailin78/RzEWXTc1fII/A​AAAAAAAAbo/O_K3cID-UOk/IMG_1411.jpg?imgma​x=512

[IMG]http://lh4.google.com …k/IMG_1411.jpg?​imgmax=512

NEVER EVER EVER SHOOT IN P!!!!
(unless you are illuminating subjects with flash, rather than just filling them)

Av is your best bet followed by Tv

You guys are great!

Thanks a million for the help/advice - I'm learning alot

Jen

I had all sorts of trouble when I first got my XTi and tried shooting my two toddlers indoors. Until you start learning photography, you never think of just what "low light" means. I always thought my living room with the lamps on at night was anything but low-light, but man was I wrong! Shutter speeds were always 1/30 or less, and that was even with my 50mm 1.8.

Then I got the 430ex..... WOW!!! forget any other accessories for now and spend the money on an external flash. I went from 3 or 4 shots out of 10 being sharp at ISO 800 to about 9 out of 10 at ISO 100! And while it is always better to learn about photography, the Canon ETTL system can usually be trusted to do most of the work. I say run out to the store right now before you lose any more shots.

Ugh... I sold a bunch of stuff to buy the camera... I need to find more stuff to sell

Hehe, this is just the beginning, just the tip of the iceberg..

shoot in M mode, set the aperture to f4, shutter to 60 or higher, ISO 400 or 800, turn on your flash, and start firing...

ak_powder_monkey wrote in post #4268636
NEVER EVER EVER SHOOT IN P!!!!

-js

One thing you may want to try is the flash compensation menu. On my XTi, it's right under the AEB in the settings and it did help me out with my pop up flash when I was at the Air Force Musuem this past weekend on a couple of shots. It acts like the exposure compensation except it works for the flash.

Its the tip of a very large iceburg. 90% of an iceburg can be completely concealed under the water.

I don't want to sidetrack this too much - but please ignore those trying to tell you that the issue here was P mode. The issue here was plain and simple not enough light: she's at max ISO, max aperture and the shutter speed is too slow. It doesn't matter what mode you use to get to those exposure parameters; the result will either be darkness (M mode if you ignore the meter saying underexposure or Tv mode) or blur. P is a perfectly acceptable mode - all it does is offer combinations of aperture and shutter speed and isn't much different from Av or Tv - although I'd agree that its simplicity is its drawback for learners since you might not think enough. For flash P is a quick and easy mode since it defaults to 1/60 with flash as main light.

Bounced flash is your friend in this situation. In the meanwhile for closer shots there are a few guys who've made homemade flash diffusers with a ping pong ball to reduce harshness with the pop-up flash. Looks silly, but it can work - do a search if you want to try.

lungdoc wrote in post #4281062
For flash P is a quick and easy mode since it defaults to 1/60 with flash as main light.

I find it handy to set custom function (I forget which) that forces the shutter speed to 1/200 in Av mode. (That's as fast a shutter as you can use with an ordinary flash.)

That allows me to use Av if I want flash to be the sole light source, and P (or Tv) if I want the camera to allow ambient light to "fill in". (Not the same as fill flash.)

This is important when the ambient light is a different color from the flash, as when shooting flash indoors under tungsten light. The mixture of the two will be difficult to balance out and will often be different in various parts of the picture. In that situation I use Av for flash, while outdoors (when the daylight is close to the same color as the flash) I can use P.

-js

number six wrote in post #4281148
I find it handy to set custom function (I forget which) that forces the shutter speed to 1/200 in Av mode. (That's as fast a shutter as you can use with an ordinary flash.)

That allows me to use Av if I want flash to be the sole light source, and P (or Tv) if I want the camera to allow ambient light to "fill in". (Not the same as fill flash.)

This is important when the ambient light is a different color from the flash, as when shooting flash indoors under tungsten light. The mixture of the two will be difficult to balance out and will often be different in various parts of the picture. In that situation I use Av for flash, while outdoors (when the daylight is close to the same color as the flash) I can use P.

-js

I don't know if I follow you here. The EOS flash system by default uses flash as fill in Av and main light source in P. The custom function simply forces the shutter speed to 1/250 in Av, I don't think it changes the flash behaviour - in fact I believe you'd get less flash output say in a situation where without flash Av exposure is 1/320 at f/8; with this function enabled you'd be overexposing at 1/200 even before you added the flash. Now in darker situations where pre-flash SS is slower than 1/250 (say it was 1/125) then I suppose it does turn flash into main lighting with darker backgrounds. I don't really understand the advantage of this function since you already have P mode with flash acting as main light; M for full control - seems to me that leaving Av mode with flash as fill has a big advantage. Main Av drawback is you need to remember that it is fill AND unless you use high speed sync you'll overexpose in bright light (and can't use onboard flash for fill in bright light).