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From the top down:
+/- Lighting Bolt (Flash) Button
1.) Press once to pop up the built-in flash.
2.) Hold it and the +/- (*) diaphragm button (page 13) at the same time and spin the rear dial to
alter the brightness of the flash. 0.0 is normal and I leave it there almost all the time. Only in rare
instances do I ever need to adjust it towards the minus side to make it darker, or the plus side to
make it lighter.
This is much easier to do than it sounds; it's quite natural.
3.) Hold it and spin the rear dial to select the flash sync mode. The sync mode is displayed on the
lower left of the LCD.
Here are the modes and what they do:
Normal (a lightning bolt, which is the default): In Program and A exposure modes, the shutter
won't stay open longer than 1/60 second.
I always use Normal mode and it looks great.
In this mode you won't get blur indoors, but you may get black backgrounds. The best way to
avoid dark backgrounds with the D40 is to use an external flash like the SB-400 and bounce it off
the ceiling (flip it up. I love the look of the bounced SB-400 external flash; you can see a zillion
examples at my baby Ryan Rockwell's website.
Unlike other Nikons, the D40 doesn't have a custom function to choose a longer speed, like 1/8, in
P and A exposure modes (page 11) to lighten backgrounds indoors. You'll have to use S or M
mode which takes more cunning to setup. You can use the Slow Sync (page 18) mode below, but
indoors or at night it often results in uncontrolled crazy long speeds up to 30 seconds, which lead
to blur.
Red-Eye (eyeball and bolt icon): I never use this. It shines an obnoxious light in your subject's
eyes for a couple of seconds and then releases the shutter. If I set this mode by accident it bugs
the heck out of me, because the camera doesn't go off until several seconds after I've pressed the
shutter, but I have no idea why because I've set no self timer! It doesn't do much to reduce redeye
anyway. Skip this mode.
SLOW (SLOW and bolt icon): This mode can be very useful. It lets the shutter stay open as long
as it needs to so dim ambient light can expose properly with flash. Of course if it's dark these
exposure times can get long. You can get blur from subject motion and camera shake.
In daylight SLOW is the same as NORMAL, since exposure times are short. SLOW unlocks the
camera in P and A exposure modes (page 11) to make exposures as long as it wants to in dim
light.
Have a look at most issues of National Geographic and you'll see many indoor shots made in this
© 2007 KenRockwell.com 18 converted by Sándor Nagy