Buying Nikon flash for D40

[skylo0701]

Hi bros and sis, sorry newbie here. 请您多多请教. Wanna know if there's another reason besides softening an image taken with the built-in flash, that means the image taken with a flash is not so "hard" and bright. So is this the only reason why people buy external flash? What other reasons are there? Because thinking of buying a SB-600 for my Nikon D40, so wanna find out first b4 launching into it. Thanks very much in advance.

 

[lBlOlSlSl]

One of the reasons why I gotten mine was I never like 'snapshot' feel to my pic of friends and family which we get from PnS. The ability to allow me to underexpose my background 1 or so stop and light up my subjects with a external flash making them look 'out of the pic' makes me happy. ^.^

Also the skin tone color looks more nature too. Depth of a certain color for example, blue, would only show with the flash if not all you get is quite flat tone of blue instead of the gradient like tone of blue.

Lastly, some of us have lens that just don't work with build in flash like Tokina 11-16mm which would leave a big shadow at the bottom of the photo if a internal flash is used.

Cheerio~

 

[jtchoy]

External flash lets you bounce it off a ceiling or bounce card, so its not so harsh... Its usually much brighter than the built-in flash and recycles much faster too.

 

[HTCahHTC]

actually there's a diffuser specially made for built in flashes.

 

[skylo0701]

Thanks guys, but wanna know another thing, how many of u guys actually adjust the settings on your Nikon SB-600 or any other external flash for that matter? Is there any website that teaches u what is what for the buttons on the flash? Because chacked out some websites on the Nikon SB-600 but blur leh....

 

[Blur Shadow]

Err... I think most of us do... A large part is probably experience, although the iTTL gets it right most of the time.

For instance, if the ceiling is a little too far, you may wish to add +2/3 before bouncing off the ceiling... etc...

 

[gymak90]

For me, I leave it to iTTL. It's accurate for most of the time.

However, if you notice any under or overexposure, then you gotta to use M mode to change. Sometimes even the zoom setting has to be changed manually, for better results.