Lightscoop and the Nikon D40
Let’s be real. A lot of people take pictures in their apartments/homes with pretty crappy lighting, often while sitting on their couch. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get really good pictures this way. The colors are too dark; the image is too grainy; the flash pops up and blasts away. But you can still take good pictures for cheap. You can use the Lightscoop—or just hold a hand-held mirror at a 45-degree angle in front of your flash.
The simplest way I’ve found to take indoor shots with the Lightscoop and the Nikon D40 is to, using P-mode, just set the exposure to +2.0. (This is with the standard D40 lens.) You can set this by pressing the “info” button (next to the on/off switch), pressing the “i”/magnifying glass button, selecting the +/- option (to the right of the flash compensation option), the setting the exposure to +2.0.
In the photo above, the P-mode set my shot to 1/60 at f4.5. ISO 800.
Other quick tip: In your Custom Setting Menu (the pencil menu), go to option 10 - ISO Auto. Set it to ON. And set Max. sensitivity to 1600 and Min. shutter speed to 1/4. This gives you a lot of flexibility in indoor, low-light situations.