This is one of my standard party shots:

It is three-dimensional, shows fun, and shows the subject well. If the subject is the worse for wear, the blurring hides that, which subjects tend to like for some reason.

You get a picture like this by:

• Using an external flash.
• Bouncing that flash behind you, off a wall or ceiling.
• Using a wide lens : <24mm on a crop camera, or <35 on full frame.
• Getting close. No, closer. No, even closer!
• Using aperture or manual mode with a wide-open aperture (small “F”-number).

Oh dear, I seem to have given away another secret.

Guess what.  The days that “giving away secrets” was a bad thing are long gone. We call this The Internet. You can come here every day in the secure knowledge that I will never “hold back information”. My mission is to fill the world with better photographers, and to show you all how simple this is. Because it is.