That is just awesome... composition and all! :-):-)
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These are all from last night. Pics were shot with my Canon T1i, Tamron 28-75 f/2.8, and Canon 430EX II flash (hehehe). Most shots are at 200 ISO, f/5.6, and 1/125-1/200 SS. Flash was usually set to bounce @ 75 degrees. Use an exif viewer to see the specific stats. Post-processing was minimal in Aperture. Some of these I might do a real PP on in Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop; but that'll wait....

Caught a friend at a moment of insight, converted to B&W:
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Tweaked with the lighting and got an interestingly lit pic of the DrMS:
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Not the sharpest photo of the county courthouse ever; but not bad for 1/25 handheld (no IS):
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Played with flash on the second curtain when this drunk guy came over to our table:
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I swear I shot in color all night; but another turned to P&W in post:
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C&C appreciated....
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Awesome Pics, D!:-) Do You Give Lessons?:-)
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I know you're a Dokk, but are you a surgeon? :-) Hahahaha... 1/25 with no IS, no tripod taken by me would look like sh1t.
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LoL! Thanks for the kind words, Greg.

For the last time, Dan, I will NOT do your operation. :-)

Thanks for the compliment. I have a steady hand sometimes. If you were to crop in, the flaws would become more apparent. Truthfully, it'd be an awesome shot with a long exposure -- I just think my town's old courthouse is cool as hell. In fact, here's the view on a sunny day from the other side of the square:

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Okay ... one last pic. Wife was totally perplexed as to why I was taking a photo of her hands and drink. I thought it turned out nicely, though. B&W was a must here with the lighting and detail.

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Perfect sense. Will I lose that cool blur of the background though if I raise the F stop?
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It depends on how much you raise the number (which lets in less light), it depends on the lens, and it depends on other compositional factors. But generally, yes -- as you raise the f-stop, depth of field increases and that background blur (called bokeh [click the link]) goes down.
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Most likely. That's the thing with Photography. You have to find the right balance of everything to make the perfect picture. You can keep the cool blur (boque) If you adjust the distance between the subject and the lights in the background.
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Nice Doc. Almost the same answers. :-)
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Get out of my brain! :-)

:-)
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Darrell,
that is what makes it so much fun.
It is all a combination of speed with which you take the picture (more speed, less light, less speed, more light) coupled with aperture (the lower the f stop number, the more light but less depth of field, the greater the f number, the less light but more depth of field/more sharpness).
For example, with manual focusing medium format cameras that most wedding photographers used in my days, we use to set the lens to f 8, adjust shutter and flash as necessary for that f stop and hence they can set their range on the lens to a focus of 15 feet and close their eyes when shooting couples walking into a church or hall. There is no way anything within an 8 ft focus range will not be clear.

So, it all depends on what you seek. In the photos you posted, I agree with them comments that you needed to adjust your depth of field to better capture ones eye to your subject. By increasing your f stop and by reducing your shutter speed, you would have accomplished the same lighting result.
While you learn, I recommend you go with the aperture priority setting on your dial and play with higher f stops. As you do that, the camera will automatically reduce your shutter to compensate for your new setting. After you have played with that a while, you can go to full manual mode and control both as you see fit for the result you seek.
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Darrel,
It takes practice and not all can do it but you can actually hold down pretty well as low as 1/15 and possibly 1/8.
I can do 1/8 no problem but have done stuff like that for years so I set my body up in a tripod type stance and have adopted ways of pulling it off. Doesn't always work but I can usually pull it off more times than not.
Don't be afraid to try it. Also, don't let the camera tell you what f stop. Open it up manually as you go lower and you will open up light.

I have to go back and check my settings but this is an example of one I recall shooting at least at 1/15, if not 1/8.

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Great shot.
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Thanks for all the info, Carlos. I will certainly keep it all in mind and apply it. I have been shooting with A (aperture priority) only really. Not sure why, just the shots come out best with that.
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You shot that at 1/5, Carlos ... with a Point-and-Shoot (Canon PowerShot G1). Nice. :-)
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Wow.
Lower than I thought.
I was going to look it up but you saved me the trouble.
I miss that G1.
That was one neat non SLR almost professional digital.
Long gone now as the board sizzled and not worth repairing.

To this day, in spite of my D80, I often find myself using my Nikon CoolPix.
Those little guys can take some amazing photos but limit your manual mode creativity. The G1 allowed me to do anything except change lenses. Come to think of it, that camera had an amazing panoramic capability that use to stitch photos to create a 360 view if you wanted it. I think in spite of some computer crashes I may have one or two of those stitches around. Let me see if I can dig it up.

Why did you mention that G1?:-) I am having fond memories now.
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Aaron,
Where is the top photo taken at?
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House of Blues Orlando Fl. Only leveled

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-Roland.
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