Photos in low indoor light? Help!

[glatt]

Don't do the slow shutter speed. You need a higher shutter speed to keep your kid from being a blur. Slow shutter speeds are great for taking pictures of the inside of dark churches, but horrible for shooting moving kids.

Set the ISO to one of the highest settings. I'd try 400 and see how it looks. If it's too noisy, try 200.

Set the aperture to the lowest setting, and use the aperture priority function on the camera so that it always uses that low aperture when you are indoors. It will set the shutter speed automatically.

Make sure the flash is on. Don't use the red eye reduction feature, because that adds a second or two to the time it takes the camera to finally get around to taking a picture after you push the button. You can always remove red eye later on the computer.

Your real problem is how long the camera is taking to focus, and possibly the shutter lag. You push the button and the camera waits a second before the picture is taken. Many cameras can pre-focus by pushing the button halfway down. See if yours does. You push the button halfway down when your son is a certain distance away, then when he does something you like in that same spot, finish pushing the button all the way down. The camera will take the picture instantly then, instead of thinking for a few seconds.

Finally, take lots and lots of pictures and delete the crap. Kids in low light are nearly impossible to shoot.

Also, get down on the ground. Pictures of the tops of kids' heads are not as good as pictures on their level.