Blurry pictures

[VaE39]

So I was at a party with fairly good lighting. It wasn't that dark because all the lights were still on and there was still a little sun coming through the windows. I was trying to take as many pictures as I could of some of my friends there but every time I tried to bring the f/ lower the pictures turned out very blurry. I was trying to get the effect of making the background out of focus but the people in focus. Any tips for a complete newb?:mrgreen:

 

[LaFoto]

Can we see some? Blooper or not?
I would guess that even though your eyes still registered a fair amount of light, it simply wasn't enough for the camera to take pics at a fast enough shutter speed to handhold them.
Or it was already too dark for the autofocus to find a focus point?
Or you just did not wait long enough for it to focus?
Or people were too close to your camera so the camera just COULD no longer focus on them?

We would really need to see some of said pics to say what the possible reason for the blurriness might be.

 

[kittymaguire]

What was the focal length of the lens?
What was the shutter speed?
May have been camera shake?