Family Photoshoot Happening NOW, looking for some help

[chrisburke]

so most of the studio work i've done is just individuals.. not groups.. i normally do those outside... i'm trying to do MY family shot and I cant seem to get this lighting stuff down.... the following is a picture of my set up that is there right now just waiting for us to sit into position...

the problem i'm having is, even though i have a flash on the right side, its still very dark over there in the pictures...

I even tried putting a reflector over there to bounce the light more, and it didnt do anything... heres an example... ignore the lamp on the left side, i realized pretty quick to shut that off..

it almost looks as though that flash isnt even firing, but it is.

any help is appreciated.

 

[Big Mike]

How are you triggering that other flash? If it looks like it's firing but not showing up in the photo...it's probably some sort of trigging mishap. For example, are you using E-TTL on your main light and using an optical trigger on the slave?

 

[chrisburke]

the flash on the white umbrella is via wired hot shoe and the other is a SB 50 which has a built in optical slave

 

[Big Mike]

I though so...that's your problem.

When a flash is connected to the hot-shoe and in E-TTL mode...it fires a pre-flash for metering, then fires again for the exposure. The optical slave on the other flash will trigger when it detects the pre-flash...and it won't be able to fire again for the exposure because it happens so fast.

The solution is to put your main flash into manual mode, which should prevent it from firing a pre-flash. You will then have to figure out and set your flash power manually.

 

[stsinner]

Are you and your wife wearing the same shoes? I think that may be the problem. LOL...

After playing with my setup, I can tell you that you can see a flash fire and not see it help the picture at all!! Slow your shutter down-that worked for me. Of course you'll have to adjust your aperture a stop or three, also.

I actually took pictures of the remotes and could see that they were not on, but my eyes saw them fire.. Shutter was too fast to realize their light.

 

[chrisburke]

I though so...that's your problem.

When a flash is connected to the hot-shoe and in E-TTL mode...it fires a pre-flash for metering, then fires again for the exposure. The optical slave on the other flash will trigger when it detects the pre-flash...and it won't be able to fire again for the exposure because it happens so fast.

The solution is to put your main flash into manual mode, which should prevent it from firing a pre-flash. You will then have to figure out and set your flash power manually.

Thanks mike.. we can always count on you

Are you and your wife wearing the same shoes?

lol they are similar


well this sucks.. the light that is on the wired slave doesnt seem to have a manual mode.. all its got is an on button, and some exposure buttons... can i set it to manual mode through the camera?

 

[Big Mike]

What flash model is it? I would think that most TTL capable units would have a manual mode.

Do you have another way to trigger the main flash?

It's also possible that your shutter speed is too fast for the slave flash to trigger in time. What shutter speed are you using?

 

[chrisburke]

I'm using the sunpak pf30....just doing some reading to see if there is a way to put it in manual mode

i've made a few adjustments and heres what im getting now...

exif is as follows:
1/60th sec F5.0 ISO 200


still getting some shadow.. the flash is so quick i cant really tell if they are firing together or not...

 

[stsinner]

A pro friend of mine told me to start at f/8, ISO 100 and shutter at 1/100. That got me going as a baseline, although the aperture didn't work.

Is there a chat room on this site where you could get more real-time help from Mike?

 

[chrisburke]

Is there a chat room on this site where you could get more real-time help from Mike?

poor mike would be so busy!!! it would be a full time job managing that

 

[Big Mike]

Is the Sunpak a TTL capable (dedicated) flash? I thought you would be using a Nikon flash.

I'm not sure exactly what your problem is, sorry.

 

[chrisburke]

Sunpak supports D-TTL, i-TTL, and TTL flash compatability

i have one nikon and one sunpak

 

[Di&Z]

A pro friend of mine told me to start at f/8, ISO 100 and shutter at 1/100. That got me going as a baseline, although the aperture didn't work.

Is there a chat room on this site where you could get more real-time help from Mike?

Not to butt in, but yes, there is a way to chat in real time. You'll have to know the email address of the person you want to invite to the site/room once you create the room. Hth.
www.chatzy.com