Getting better...ish

So today I was over at my friend's place, and I had my camera with me so I decided to take some photos. It was a little on the dark side, so I whipped out my external flash. I'm slowly getting more accustomed to it, but I still find some of my photos coming out too dark or bright. Ideally, I'd like to add enough light to avoid a blurry photo, without making my subjects look like pale ghosts lol