portrait shooting

[Ygrazi]

I Recently bought a bunch of photography equipment to start out. (tripod, backdrops, and umbrella strobe lights)
I was playing around taking portraits, but the results arent as sharp as I want them to be,(They're clear, but not "professional clear") and sometimes I get shadows behind the subject.
The lighting in my house is pretty dim, so its kind of hard to get an accurate meter reading bc of the strobes.
My settings were: f\8 SS- 500 (also tried 250 and 125) Matrix metering ISO 400, then I tired ISO 200 and they came out darker)
Any advise?

Oh, and if it matters, I have the Nikon D50.
Thanks!

 

[Sir Tony]

What lens were you using?

 

[KevinR]

Can depend on the wattage of your lights. How far they are from the subject? Stuff like that. When I set up mine, I'm usually shooting around 250th at F11 and iso 100 with the lights at half power or even a little lower. Maybe posting a pic will give us a little more to go by.

 

[Ygrazi]

I was using a 55-200mm lens,
The lights are pretty close to the subject 4-5 feet
I dont know the wattage of the lights, but they were really cheap (56 on ebay for 2) could that be my problem?
oh, and how do i post a pic?