I wrote this in the Flickr forums to someone having trouble integrating there Nikon SB-600 Speedlite into their photograpic regime. She said “I have no idea what the settings are on the flash so I end up using auto and saying screw it.” She was up for learning, so I decided to “learn” her:
Wai-wai-wait. Ok… So, the [pretty] OP doesn’t know jack about her speedlight? Fair, enough. Hopefully your 600 isn’t too different than my 28.
I imagine that when you hit MODE, things change on your LED screen. So keep tapping MODE until you see an M all by itself. That’s Manual mode. From there, I think you can tap on the SEL to select different deals that blink as you go through them.
The fractions you see (1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, 1/128) tell you how powerful your flash will, uh, flash. This is a good time to mention that Strobe and Flash are the same exact thing nowadays…they used to be different, but no one uses real strobes anymore. But "Strobe" sounds cooler so I tend to say that more often. 
Ok, so, the fractions mean power. Ok, so then 1/1 is full power, and 1/128 is the weakest power. So…
This is what I like to do. For most shots where the strobe is about 6 feet away from the subject, I usually have it on 1/4 power, with my camera (on Manual, as well) set to ISO100, f/5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/60 or so, depending on the lens. I’m pretty sure you’ll do fine at 1/250. If not (and you’ll know because your picture is dark), then bring your shutter speed down to 1/200 or 1/150 or whatever. Again, this depends on how long your lens is.
Note: Clicking on any of my pics will tell you how I shot them. Viva knowledge!
Another thing to consider will be ambient light. How much ambient do you want? The shutter speed controls how much ambient light comes in. If you’re set at the above settings AND have a shutter speed of 1 second, then more ambient light will pour into your camera. The camera only NEEDS to be at 1/250 to sync with the strobe’s flash of light (as far as Canon is concerned…which is what I use), but the background will be dark (unless it’s pure sunlight).
BASICALLY what this does is what the camera does automatically in Night Portrait mode (or non-Canon equivalent) with an auto flash. Except this time YOU are in charge.
One of my favorite things to do is set the camera for a long exposure but with the aperture exposed for my flash. Then I hold the flash in my hand with my finger on the TEST or FLASH button. Then I actuate the camera and fire the flash manually and you have one of these pics:
Then later on you can start worrying about REALLY getting the flash off your camera and syncing it wirelessly with some sweet, sweet PocketWizards. Awww, yeah.
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