firing bowens gm200 from a nikon d90

gtechrob · Oct 27, 2011

newbie here - and I am ashamed to admit that I fall in the category of all the gear but no idea!!

need to do some product shots - got me a nice acrylic photo table, nikon d90 with a decent f2.8 lens, a speedlight and a pair of Bowens GM200 studio lights.

I am trying to fire the bowens lights from the flash as I don't have a sync cable.

I am able to fire the units but they don't seem to be having any affect on my shots - it's almost as if they are not firing when the shutter is open... seems impossible as I imagine they fire as soon as the light from the speedlight gets picked up by the sensor.

Any ideas?

tirediron · Oct 27, 2011

Lots... there was my plan to build a bridge from Victoria to Hawaii, and the one to... oh, your lights, right. My first guess is that you're using your speedlight, and the camera is in TTL. When you're using strobes, you should be doing all of your exposures calculations in manual. First, buy either a wireless trigger, or a sync cable (they're cheap & cheerful) then, try switching the camera to manual and going with 1/200, and f8 and the strobes a few feet back at half power and going from there. To do this right, you really need a flash meter.

My other guess is that your speedlight's pre-flash (again assuming TTL mode) is triggering the strobes, and since this occurs BEFORE the shutter opens, then it is literally having no effect. A little more information about your settings and situation would help.