I need a crash course!

[lordbean]

My sister's wedding is tomorrow (it's going to be outdoors, probably sunny but might be cloudy). I'm trying to set up my digital camera to optimize picture quality, I don't care about card space (I have a 2GB CF in it). The camera is a Canon Powershot A510 3.2MP.

I have these options available in program mode:
+/-0 default (range -2 to +2) don't know what this does
White Balance (auto, daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, fluorescent H, custom)
ISO speed (auto, 50, 100, 200, 400, default auto) don't understand the difference
effect (off, vivid, neutral, low sharpening, sepia, B&W)
evaluative, center weighted avg, spot (don't know what these options do)
and resolution, which I've set to superfine large (2048x1536).

I could use all the advice I can get on configuring the camera.

[Thrax]

Crash course is served: http://icrontic.com/articles/intro_photography

[shwaip]

+/-0 default (range -2 to +2) don't know what this does

leave it at default (0). this will effect the exposure of the image. + makes it lighter, - darker. you want the default.

White Balance (auto, daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, fluorescent H, custom)

you want auto. different light sources cause objects to be different colors to the camera's sensor. your eyes auto-adjust, but cameras do an ok job. you can fix this in post processing if it's way off.

ISO speed (auto, 50, 100, 200, 400, default auto) don't understand the difference

you want auto. ISO is the sensitivity of the camera sensor. The camera will control the sensitivity, and set it appropriately for you and the light level.

effect (off, vivid, neutral, low sharpening, sepia, B&W)

you probably want off. you can do all that stuff in post processing.

evaluative, center weighted avg, spot (don't know what these options do)

this is the metering. the camera is determining how bright the scene is. spot uses just the very center, center weighted avg uses a little more, evaluative does some camera mumbo-jumbo. you probably want evaluative.

and resolution, which I've set to superfine large (2048x1536).

[lordbean]

Thanks for the quick advice, I ended up getting some decent shots at the wedding :)

I did find that especially for taking pictures of people on the dance floor, forcing ISO 400 helped a ton. Auto ISO was making the pictures blurry.