Boat party, best thing of BRW :) Nightly London city from river was beautiful to watch and photograph. In this kind of environment SLR or any camera allowing manual settings is your best friend, as almost any automatic camera would make background far too dark or without flash people in front would be too dark.

One way to pictures like this:
- Set camera to automatic and turn off flashlight.
- Take one picture of background only. Camera will choose shutter speed and aperture value that makes background nicely visible.
- Set camera to manual and set same shutter speed and aperture value than what was used in last picture.
- Turn on flashlight and take actual picture.

Background that flash can't reach will look same as in test picture. People in front are illuminated by flashlight. If background is too dark or light, just change shutter speed or aperture value. If people in front are too light or dark, change flash exposure compensation.

Exif: Canon EOS 30D + EF 17-40/4L @ 17mm, Manual (M), 1/30s, F4.0, ISO 1600, Flash On (-1/3)