how to fill flash d 60 and d5000

hi; i hope you bare with me on this.

i like to use the pre set programs to photo and have never tried using the M A S P settings on either camera.

have been using cameras for out door, nature, and portrait pix. have found on portrait pix that i am loosing facial features under shadows caused by caps, and photos shot into the sun.

i have read and been told, fill flash would solve this problem.

for the life of me, i cant figure out how to use flash for fill in bright day light.
please tell me in the simplest terms, what i am doing wrong, to get flash turned on.

thank you garry

Probably the programmed modes do not use the flash , I had a D40, and I can't remember

simplest way to do it would be to Use P , and pop-up the flash

I read another thread where you had trouble with the speedlights recycling, seems it was a paid job, perhaps it would be a good idea to study how to control the camera a bit more than what you get using the programmed modes

In Green-let-the-camera-do-it-all mode pops the flash up automatically. In the other modes you take more control. You have to pop the flash up yourself.

Once the flash it up the camera will try to fill in the shadows with the light from the flash. However as the flash on the cameras you mention is low-powered, it probably has no effect beyond 6 feet in bright sunlight (or even less)

To get a good, reliable effect out to 10 feet or more you need a really powerful flash (example: SB600, SB700, SB800, SB900..)

nope wasn't me on speed lights
i only take pix to document gerry and my travels

trying to hang on to point and shoot simplicity, and get bigger camera images.

i do have the camera manuals and they are difficult for me to read. i think if i get one figured out they will both work the same.

was hoping for a simple step by step answer. at some point will have to quit depending on all of the scene modes.

thank you franglais

here is a pix that i have problems taking. as stated i am going to have to wean myself from the simplicity of the scene dial and start learning the cameras better.

have to raise post count to post pix

one more post then.....

ok; hope pix can post now
http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/49...600x600Q85.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Franglais

In Green-let-the-camera-do-it-all mode pops the flash up automatically. In the other modes you take more control. You have to pop the flash up yourself.



To get a good, reliable effect out to 10 feet or more you need a really powerful flash (example: SB600, SB700, SB800, SB900..)

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thanks. will try.
one thing i learned this summer, if there is one key element in photos, it is light management. now need to work on that, but doesn't always work the way i think it might

http://inlinethumb47.webshots.com/48...600x600Q85.jpg

OK let's talk about light management on the picture with the person in the foreground and the dogs behind.

This picture looks rather underexposed to me. The main subject - the person - is in shadow and the background is out in the open. My guess is that the camera has decided that both are important and has tried to do a compromise between the two. What you wanted was for the main subject to be properly exposed and the background starting to wash out.

If you shifted the view slightly to the left then it's possible that the camera would change it's judgement and expose the person correctly. You have to take control here and give the camera a hand if you realise that things are going wrong. Two possibilities:

- Reframe to point at the person, press the shutter release half way to hold the exposure then reframe bck to the original picture and fire
- Use exposure compensation to increase exposure

This scene is NOT ideal for fill-in flash. You want to fill-in the main subject and bring up the light level to that of the background. However the flash metering looks mostly at the center of the frame and in the center of the frame you have - nothing. It's possible that fill-in flash would try to illuminate the background and burn out the subject because it's much closer.

i will go out and experiment with that the next nice days we get.

i'm looking for the easy way out and am going to be forced to put ore time into this to get the results i want.

thank you for taking time to give some advice. i'm heading to local library also, to get some help deciphering the manual terminology. .