Home Studio strobe lights

[ameya77]

Hello, I bought a set of home studio strobe lights. These strobes are triggered by the built in flash on my Nikon D40. I tried taking pictures with and without the external strobe lights and did not find any difference.
The first thing that came to my mind is the synchronization of the shutter opening and the external strobe lights. As the strobes are triggered by the camera flash, is there a delay in lighting up the subject? Is the shutter doing its job even before the strobes are triggered?
Is there any adjustment required on the camera to get the full effect of the strobes?

[jorgemonkey]

What may be happening is your on camera flash is firing a preflash which is setting off your strobes. If you can put your flash into manual mode (going through the camera menu) then you'll be set.

[Ray Dockrey]

What strobes did you get? I have the Interfit EXD200's and they can be set to ignore the pre-flashes or like mentioned above put the camera in manual. If you want to use a sync cord you can by a AS-15 sync terminal adapter made by Nikon that mounts on the hotshoe and you plug the cable into it and then in one of the strobes. I got mine for less then $15. You still have to set the camera on manual but it is an option.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...l_Adapter.html

[ameya77]

Thanks to you both. The strobes were setting due to the pre flash. My strobes do not have the setting to ignore the preflash, however the manual mode of flash worked pretty well. Thanks again.