Here are a few tips that I've learned over the past couple years through a lot of trial-and-error (mostly "error"). You actually may already know these tips, so please bear with me.
First, I actually don't like the built-in flash on the camera. It's a very weak flash. And, at least on the Canon, it flashes a seizure-inducing strobe before the camera actually takes the picture. Very annoying.
I actually prefer an
external flash. External flashes are much more powerful and easier to control. The better external flashes also allow you to point the head of the flash in different directions so that you can "bounce" the flash off walls or off ceilings for larger, prettier, more diffuse, directional light.
For character pictures, though, I personally use an external flash pointed straight at my subjects. Oftentimes, there really isn't a ceiling or a wall to "bounce" my flash off of.
(I actually wrote the following back in June, so if you've already read this, then you're done reading my post...)
When you're taking a flash picture, you've actually got TWO different exposures going on at the same time: the foreground exposure and the background exposure.
The flash helps with the foreground exposure. Your camera settings determine the background exposure. That's the key to flash photography!
I typically
set the flash to TTL ("through the lens"), which is the flash's "auto" mode. In general, TTL does a pretty good job on its own, so I just set it and forget it. You might need to add or subtract a little Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) depending on whether you've got a lot of white or a lot of black in your photo, respectively. In simple terms, FEC adds / subtracts a little bit of power from the flash.
For indoor flash photography, I typically set my camera to Manual. Again, the camera settings (ie. shutter speed, aperture, ISO) control the background exposure. That's why when you increased your ISO, you saw that the background got brighter.
I typically start by taking a test shot without flash, just to get the correct camera settings to expose the background. Actually, it's okay if I slightly underexpose the background, too. That way, my foreground subject (lit by flash) can stand out from the slightly darker background.
Through lots of trial-and-error, I finally found some ballpark camera settings that work for me...at least as initial settings:
- shutter speed - since my subject is posing, I really don't need a super-fast shutter speed. I just need a shutter speed that's fast enough to stop any camera shake. So I'll start with 1/100 sec. I might go as slow as 1/60 sec, which is the typical point-and-shoot shutter speed, or if I'm holding the camera really really steady (or if I'm trying to get a brighter background), I may go slightly slower.
- aperture - I usually start with f/5.6 to get a little bit of depth of field for my subject. If my wife is posing with Donald Duck, I'd like to see both of them in-focus as much as possible, so that's why I start with f/5.6. (although, I should probably try plugging in some numbers in a depth-of-field calculator, just to see if I can go with larger apertures)
- ISO - I typically start with ISO 400, if I can. But now with better camera sensors and improved Lightroom 3 noise reduction, I'm gonna start venturing out to ISO 800, if needed.
So these are the settings I use for *indoor* or *outdoor nighttime* flash photography. (btw, these settings for outdoor nighttime scenes will make the background completely black) The flash is in TTL.
For *outdoor daytime* flash photography, I'll set my camera to Aperture priority mode, and let the camera figure out the background exposure. The flash is still in TTL.
There are a couple other things you can do to brighten up your background in flash photography. First, instead of pointing the flash directly at your subject, see if you can
point the flash at the ceiling (if the ceiling is not too high and if the ceiling is not some strange color). This will turn the ceiling into a HUGE light source, which will lighten up much of the background AND will soften the shadows.
The downside to this, though, is that the light is now coming from above your subjects, so you might get unflattering shadows under your subjects' eyes and nose, like racoons' eyes. I think there are a few flash accessories that help to address this by throwing a little bit of "fill flash" forward to your subject. They range from do-it-yourself flash accessories to overpriced stuff.
The other thing you can do is brighten the background in post-processing. Did you shoot in RAW? (it's okay if you didn't, but I think this works best with your RAW photo) You can use Lightroom to increase the
Fill Light in the photo. The Fill Light slider brightens some of the shadows in the photo, so in your case, it should brighten the darker background. If you use too much Fill Light, you'll start to see a lot of noise in those areas.
Hope that helps. Sorry for the long post.
I don't know about "right", as animated Alice's apron seems to stay on her as an act of sheer will having nothing to do with traditional physics, but I ran the straps over her shoulders and connected them to the ties going around her waist. I actually just sewed them down yesterday, because I was vacillating on whether that was the right play or not. In the end, I think that method will stay put on her better than the other ones I considered.
Another tactic is to ask everyone for $50 gift cards to the place that sells your flash. Check pawn shops too, lots of camera gear ends up there.
That $59.99 looks so tempting though!!! Oh well, back to the drawing board 
