Help with lighting

[pbsmoker]

Ok,
So i tried to take pics of my daughter today with my new setup. I have a fotodiox L-600 studio strobe Nikon D-80 with 18-50 2.8 lens.
I was shooting in manual mode and this is what i was getting:
Note the black on the left. It was either there, or if i held the camera verticle, it would be at the bottom.

When i slow the shutter or open the apeture, i get highlights, or if I increase the lighting (had it on 1/4 power) i also get highlights. Any suggestions??? I did get some great shots too, it was just a pain in the butt!!

 

[Tennessee Landscape]

The black on you left is due to your shutter sync.......your shooting too fast ashutter speed. It's not all the way open when the flash fires....try 1/200 or 1/250....I don't remember what the sync speed is on the D80

 

[TCimages]

IMO, if you only have one light source and you can't creatively bounce/reflect the light for fill, you'll need more ambient light for the dark area. Since you shot at 200, I would make the shutter speed much slower. If the shutter speed isn't acceptable, you may try higher ISO.

I think in your situation I would try a refector off the left.


I'm still learning lighting techniques, so I may be wrong.