test picture tips

[arghman]

I'm trying to do some experiments taking pictures (practicing my technique) & am finding it difficult to pick some good test subjects with sharp details/edges. Only things that have worked really well so far are newspaper print & post-it notes of various hues. Next thought would be a box of Crayola crayons...

are there some relatively inexpensive (e.g. $1 - $10) test charts you can buy? (not super-accurate NIST-traceable color charts or anything, just something that's better than your garden-variety inkjet printer) What would I look for in such a chart (besides lots of grays & colors & stuff)

any other suggestions for repeatable subjects with good color/contrast/brightness range? And am I doomed to failure if I try to take pictures indoors in the evening with normal indoor lighting w/o a flash? I always thought my kitchen was pretty bright but if I use autoexposure with my camera it wants exposures in the 1/45-1/8 second range (whereas on Saturday when it was sunny the autoexposure was showing 1/500-1/125).