Digital cameras 101

[Tim]

Hi all,
 First off, I will say that I am definitely an amateur, and have only recently started working with my new Powershot S2.  I was just wondering if anyone with more experience with this camera or digital photography in general might have some simply tips to make the red-eye reduction more effective.  As I said, I'm definitely a novice, and lean more towards auto mode, etc.  For indoor shots, I have had little success with the red-eye reduction, with many photos still showing up with devil eyes.  This is correctable via post processing to a fair degree, but I've heard this feature does fairly well on this camera, so I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong here.  Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Tim

[ShutterbugGail]

Hi Tim and welcome to the Q&A Board,

I no longer use red-eye reduction mode. I haven't found it to be that much effective in preventing red-eye than using the standard flash mode. But the main reason is that I think the pre-flashes startle people and they end up having weird expressions on their faces. So I try to take other steps such as taking photos from a different angle.

I took several group photos during Christmas, 12 people in all, and only one person in the entire group had red-eye. Go figure.

Here are some of the known tricks to help prevent red-eye:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/preventing-red-eye-using-a-flash/

An external flash is a fool-proof way to prevent it. Since the S2 doesn't have a hot shoe, a slave flash can be used.

Related reading - External flashes:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/digital-camera-external-flash/index.htm