CC please

[fotobella]

1/20, f4, 20.0mm, ISO800

Suggestions, comments, tell me what I did wrong to help correct the problem

Anyone know how to turn down the power of the built-in flash on D300s?

 

[Pugs]

Hm... well, to be perfectly honest, this doesn't hold any interest for me. The subject is an "okay... so... what's the point...?" type of thing for me.

In terms of what could be done to improve this image regardless of the subject/point, I'd say that the background is busy and distracting especially in the upper-right of the frame. My eye keeps getting dragged over there instead of at looking at the bear. The blurred out black blob of something in the lower-right is a distraction as well.

Because the bear is looking slightly to the right, I'd prefer having more negative space to the right side of the fram and less on the left.

And since the edges of the frame are cutting off parts of the subject, you could have come down more onto the bear's hat to eliminate the strip of bright background across the top.

As for toning down the power of the built in flash, since you have the camera in manual mode (good for you, by the way!) you could go with a smaller aperture (f/4 is almost completely wide open for that lens), a faster shutter speed 1/20 is really on the slow side with the flash, and come down on your ISO (800 is really better suited for lower light situations with no flash). Doing these things will also help to decrease how bright the background is, the faster shutter speed primarily will do this for you.

 

[PhotoXopher]

You can also hold down the flash button and turn the command dial to reduce the effect of the flash.

 

[thebeatles]

Very boring IMO. If you are going to take a picture of a teddy bear, I would suggest getting creative with your techniques. Otherwise, it is a teddy bear. Can't give you flash advice as I don't have a flash yet.