Newbie with D40, my first SLR....help wanted

[DoubleD-D40]

Hi All! I Just purchased my first SLR a Nikon D40 and am looking for some advice. I bought the Magic Lantern D40 DVD and have viewed it about 5 times and am somewhat grasping the concepts described in the DVD. Before watching the DVD I used it for my daughters birthday party and hated the results, see the blurry pic of her on the trampoline. Since watching the DVD I am shooting in Aperature priority mode and liking the results much better, see the pic of her painting.

This was shot in the "sports" auto mode on the D40....so much for that mode...

Painting shot specs: Aperature Priority Mode, ISO200, Shutter 1/60,Aperature 5.6, Metering - Matrix, Large Size, Fine Quality, White Bal - Auto.

I need some help in understanding what I need to set on the camera for typical shots like:
Indoor pix of the kids
Outdoor(sunny) pix of the kids/nature
Action shots of the kids, like the trampoline shot

Any guidance is greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Derek

 

[Mav]

Well the first one was indoor gymnastics and at iso800, 1/8s, and f/4.5 there was basically zero light. You just needed to pop the flash up on that one. It assumes you're outside and that the flash won't have enough range, but for that photo you would have.

For indoor shooting I use manual mode, 1/125s, lens wide-open, iso400, and either an SB-400 or an SB-600 flash bouncing off of ceilings or walls. A bounced flash will look 10000000x better than direct pop-up flash, so I'd consider getting one of those next.

 

[sultan]

Use a flash indoors and shoot wide open at ISO 200 or 400. Shoot at f/8 and ISO 200 outdoors.

 

[Joves]

Mav and sultan covered it pretty much. Id say go for the SB600 over the 400 but, them Im biased as I have the 600. Aperture priority is great for like the second pic but shutter priority would have been mauch beeter for the first. Set it to 1/250 and, the camera will pick a suitable ISO and, aperture.