From the top down:
+/- Lighting Bolt (Flash) Button
1.) Press once to pop up the
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
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.
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
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