i use that camera at school...not really any specific tips i can give you i just spent an hour or two playing with it and trying out all the different settings...when you put it on manual there are tons of options available via the buttons on top and the menu...just try different settings indoors and out, with lots of lite and will little...
about red eyes in photoshop...as i recall there is a way to do it more automatically but i usually end up using the clone stamping tool and the paintbruch/eye dropper...if anyone remembers the automatic way to remove red eye lmk as itd be a time saver for newspaper photographers (they dont know photoshop so i end up doing all the heavy editing)