How to get my SB600 flash to work off of my D3100?

Hi I'm new to the camera and flash and don't have the literature on it and I'm trying to figure out how to get my Nikon SB600 flash to sync up with my Nikon D3100 off of the camera body so that I can use it in other places.

You can't, at least not without buying some extra hardware. It takes a D90 or better (And the intelligence to quickly glance at a manual) to make that work. Do a bit of search for cactus triggers or pocket wizards

I have a D90 that is supposed to be able to work with the SB600, and I couldn't figure out the convoluted instructions in the manuals either. I don't think the D3100 has it anyway. Promaster makes a unit with a hotshoe mounted flash trigger transmitter and tripod mounted flash trigger receiver (about $40 per component, $80 total) for doing remote flash. Check with a camera store. There are also Nikon compatible cords that give a wired connection to the off-camera flash with full TTL features.

The D3100 does not have the Nikon CLS wireless flash system (nor do any of the entry level models). The SB600 doesn't have an optical slave mode either, so it won't work triggered off the inbuilt flash.

Cheapest option (Pocket Wizards are horrendously expensive) is to get a set of RF602 triggers (about £18 a set). The transmitter fits on the hotshoe of the D3100 and the receiver goes on the SB600 'foot'.

When you take a picture (in A, P, S or M modes), the flash will fire. You won;t have TTL (auto flash metering) using these triggers, so you have to set the flash power manually. Put the SB600 in manual mode (NOT remote - that's only for CLS operation) and dial in the flash power you want. It goes from 1/1 (full) down to 1/64 power in thirds of a stop.