Novice help

[sydneysnana]

Please forgive my ignorance with posting pictures to this forum and my sad pictures I'm showing here...:(
I've had my S2IS for almost a year... I carry my manuel, try and read it, but I have come to the conclusion as I have gotten older I need more, "professional" help.

So is this a good place to ask for advice or is there a beginner dummy thread somewhere?
I know there is a simple explanation for these boo-boos. The first problem I have is blur with any motion. The second can't even say what this is....
http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1KBdZBmISklvTNTwxlWBoXXEsvdiJM0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1KBdZBmISklvTNTwxlWBoXXEsvdiJM0)

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1xsIQEFaVdguq908JmFKxksN8F5CmJ1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1xsIQEFaVdguq908JmFKxksN8F5CmJ1)

Thanks
Michelle

[nap]

On the first picture, it looks like the flash fired but the shutter speed was on long exposure. Are you in Tv, M, or night scene mode? If you are, try moving to P or even auto so that the flash will be coupled with a fast shutter speed. The problem is that your background will be darker and your subject will have less natural light coming in.

On th second picture, I don't know what the problem is... I can't even see anything wrong with it. Maybe you can explain a little further.

[reppans]

1st - Doesn't look like flash was used so camera used a slow shutter speed. Both your hand shake and subject movement blur occurred. IS might, not always, correct for your own hand shake, but it won't correct for the subject's movement. Either use a flash to freeze subject, or you set a high ISO and suffer the noise.

2nd- Flash overexposed subjects, part of the reason, I think, is due to the dark brown pillows and the automatic exposure averaging of the whole picture. Use exposure compensation, or flash exposure compensation, stop down to either -1/3 or -2/3.

[nap]

Oh, I thought the 1st pic had the flash on because the child's face and shirt is white in a generally yellow-cast lighting.

[sydneysnana]

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this post. I did'nt have the flash on in the first picture and now I understand the slow shutter speed creating blur. I can't tell what mode I shot the pictures in,.... I already moved them to my computer and looking at the ...opps I doubled checked and I did find "Auto" in the Metadata. Think I'll play some more today with P and TV.
Michelle:)