Photographing 10mm?

[fsn]

You can put some greaseproof paper over the flash. This diffuses the light so it's not so harsh. 

[Techno]

I'm assuming the camera in question can't be fitted with a ring flash ?

That gets rid of any shadows...But it does tend to 'flatten' the shot.

I've got one of those for the 'SLR'....But I can never be bothered to use it.

Cheers - Phil

[Norm]

The size of flash is important. If it is an 'in camera' flash or a small cube thing (like mine), then you will get light close up on the subject, but MASSIVE fall off of light beyond the immediate subject. The flash if not variably powered can blow out the subject and can look harsh, but if photographing against light (i.e. a window is behind the subject) then fill in flash will probably be essential.

If you don't understand about white balance, then hunt down a good explanantion on Google and gain that knowledge, it is an essential ingredient as to how colours look in your picture - it is too involved to give it a cursory mention here, though if you are using flash, make sure that your white balance setting for flash is used and if using normal room lighting, use the 'light bulb' symbol. My most commonly used WB setting for green game cloths is 'shade' (no flash) in daylight.

read an online explanation about light metering to gain an understanding how a scene can report back different light values that can task many a metering system - though modern stuff is getting much better at doing all of this in the auto settings.

Finally - digital photography is not flattering to close up images of small scales, a sad truth , but through trial and error you will find a sweet spot.