nikon d40 tips please..?

A fun thing to do is to manipulate focus to get a cool image. Go out on a rainy night, when it's cool and the air is clean, just after a fresh rain. Water gives a natural saturation to an environment like nothing else.

Switch to 'P', or Programmed Auto mode. Select the 'More Vivid' option from the image quality.

Next, select 'M' on your lens' auto-focus switch to override the auto-focusing. Adjust focus by moving the inner barrel with your finger or thumb, until a street lamp, traffic light, or other such instance of illumination- is just out of sight. In return for all this hard work, you'll have a soft yet vivid image, with beautiful natural saturation.

Good luck!

You'll want an external flash like an sb-800, or sb-600.

But for now use A, which means aperture priority. This allows you to get the fastest shutter speed for the lighting you are in. Another thing I did on my old D40 is that i did a few adjustments.

here. Go to menu- then the camera icon, then optimize image-then custom-then +2 image sharpening, and enhanced saturation..it really makes your photos pop.

like this photo here.http://www.flickr.com/photos/timkershner/340159229... was shot with an off camera sb-800 and i had the saturation and image sharpening adjusted like i said earlier. and i didn't edit this pic at all.

Well the P,A,S,M modes stand for Programmed auto mode, Apeture priority mode, Shutter priority mode, and Manual mode. Most of the time when you get better at taking pictures you will be using full manual mode which is the M on the dial. The D40 comes with a VERY help full instruction manual. I would go into depth about the different settings but it would take up too much space. If I was you I would sit down and READ the whole manual from first page to last it will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about your camera.