Newbie help!! Camera settings lighting, ect

[clickchick_23]

For all you pros out there, I apologize for sounding so clueless, but I was hoping for some help. The following is a list of my gear:

Canon 40D
Canon 55-250
Canon 50
Canon 18-55
Canon 430 EX Speedlite
Backdrop stand with white and black backdrops
2 Soft boxes
Tripod
Filters

I'm shooting a newborn for my friend and I have so many creative ideas, just not the technical know how to get the great shots I'm looking for. If anyone can give me pointers on camera settings, how I should set up my lighting ect, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks so much for your advice and patience!!!

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

You said you have softboxes...but what type of lights are inside the softboxes?

 

[Samanax]

Portrait Lighting For Beginners: Portraits With One Light

Portrait Lighting For Beginners: Introduction

Photoflex Lighting School: Lighting Lessons

Studio Lighting Tutorials

 

[clickchick_23]

Welcome to the forum.

You said you have softboxes...but what type of lights are inside the softboxes?

This is the package I have:

CowboyStudio Photography Equipment | Camera Accessories

 

[Big Mike]

OK, you have strobe/flash type lights. They look to be bargain basement quality but that's what you get for that price.

The important thing to know is that you must have the camera in Manual mode when using studio strobes. It looks like you have a cord to go from the camera to the lights so you can trigger them, so that's good.

When it comes to lighting with flash/strobes, the shutter speed isn't really all that important...as long as you keep it under the max sync speed of the camera. In your case, that is probably 1/250. I'd suggest setting your shutter speed to 1/200 or 1/160.

Keep your ISO on 100 unless you find a reason to increase it.

So now you have the aperture to set. Ideally, you would use a flash meter to take a reading of the lights, then use that reading to set your aperture. If you don't have a flash meter, you can use trial and error, taking test shots and making adjustments.

I don't know if those lights have a variable power level (doesn't look like it)...so the only way to adjust the amount of exposure is with the aperture setting, or moving the lights closer or farther away from the subject.