Lighting

Get the flash off your camera! If you want your pictures to look different you need to do something different. One of the ways I try to give my pictures a different look is to take the flash off my camera so that I can use it to add depth to my subject. With Nikon cameras this is easy. On many of their cameras but not the D50, D40 and D40x you can use the wireless flash flash command in the menu. I saw this guy smoking a cigar at a wedding and set up my gear by taking the SB-800 off the D200 and setting it to remote. I then set my camera to master and walked over to him and another fellow he was talking to. I asked the friend to hold the flash and then waited for the guy to exhale. By lighting from the side you can see though some of the smoke and his face has depth to it. If you don't have the amazing SB-800 or SB-600 that allow you to control them from in your camera you can use any flash that can be set to slave. Just turn you on camera flash way down so that it is just enough to trigger the slave. Its best to take a test shoot or to to get you settings right or you will need to take several shoots of the subject which might not go over well. You look like more of a pro if you can just walk up and take one shoot and walk away.
Another way to get the look is to use a flash cord that fits on your hotshoe and the bottom of you flash. This allows your camera to still talk to you flash but you can hold the flash off to the side.