I have never liked taking pictures with a flash: they tend to turn out with dark shadows, dark background and often odd color if reflected through the ceiling.

Never the less, I went and got a SB-800 unit with a soft-box. The first shots were better than I had expected
- the soft-box or the included diffuser take care of the dark shadows
- the background is easy enough to get right using the balanced mode or other settings
- but the pre-flash still bothers me: some people and all cats look drowsy or sleeping...

Surprisingly, the white on the nose does not burn out ... Nikon's iTTL measurement is not bad!

SB-800 w/ softbox on camera, TTL BL