help with lighting

sbakewell0508 · Apr 15, 2011

Hello,

I hope i am posting in the right place, and apologize if not. I am having some super issues with some lighting i just got.

I purchased a complete studio lighting kit that had 4 monolight 110 watt lights, these lights I felt would provide plenty of power in the small space that I work in, when on these lights provide plenty of light to the naked eye, but in my camera is a different story.

I use the traditional three point light set up. However my images are just horrible and the skin tone on some of them is ugly. I have tried moving the lights, adjusting my settings, turning the power up, nothing is working. I was hoping maybe someone here would have some suggestions. My flash sync speed is 200, with strobes. i have a nikon d90.

For these photos i was all over the place trying to adjust aperature and shutter speed, and anything to fast was making the whole picture dark, but since i work with children i need to be able to have a fast shutter speed so i get the pic without blur. I like to work with the lowers iso possible as well, so i stuck to 320 and below. like i said before, I have a small area i am working with and i just dont understand why they are so dark!

if some of you would not mind visiting my flickr stream located here: Flickr: stefaniebakewellphotography's Photostream and letting me in on any advice i would appreciate it, i am ready to just pack these lights up and ship them back! even when i can get a decent "lightness in the photo" the shutter speed was way to slow and the pictures had a yellow tinge. I also have adjusted the white balance in camera to help wit the blue tinge i was getting. also i had these lights at full power which just seems to much considering i am so close to them

kundalini · Apr 15, 2011

Embed a photo because I'm not clicking on your link. Nothing personal, but with 1 post, I prefer to choose my own porn site to visit. j/k

I have the opposite issue in me small , let's call it a 'studio'. Where I have too much light because the monos are bouncing off every wall. The first thing I noticed is the 1/200s shutter speed. If I'm not mistaken, I think the D90 has a flash sync of 1/250/s. You should be at ISO250 unless there is a reason to increase. The best and easiest method to set exposure is with a hand held light meter. Absent of that, I would hazard a guess at f/8, SS 1/250s, ISO 200 for a start. If you want more ambient light, slow your shutter speed down. If you need more illuminance on the subject, increase your flash power (in small steps).

Are you using any modifiers? Softbox, umbrella, snoot, grids, etc?

Explain what you mean by " I use the traditional three point light set up."

Without a photo, not much else to say.

sbakewell0508 · Apr 15, 2011

grrr ok it wont show the pics i am not sure why of that either, i understand if you dont want to click on the flickr stream, i would not want to be led to any sites either lol

as far as the iso, i try to stay as close to 200 as possible all of time time. shutter speed anything fast than 80 (with lights up almost as high as they would go) was producing dark photos.. shutter speed i had to use large numbers in order to get just the crappy results.

i use softboxes.

Derrel · Apr 15, 2011

My educated guess is that the FLASH from the monolights is NOT being synchronized with the D90's shutter. The fact that speeds faster than 1/80 second creates dark exposures is a tip-off. You need to set the D90's flash to MANUAL mode, with the pre-flash Off, and then turn the Slave trigger on on the three monolights. That should solve the problem. We see this same problem 2,3,4 times per month.

sbakewell0508 · Apr 16, 2011

uhhhh thank you so much for this advice! i was wracking my brain because i thought i was doing something wrong! i am going to try this later today and see if it works, i will have to google how to do the above, but i think that my flashes are automatically in slave mode, cause as long as i have the remote plugged into one the rest fire.

*crossing my fingers!!*

mwcfarms · Apr 16, 2011

D90 Max sync is 200, D700 is 250 and like Derrel said make sure the camera is communicating with the flash. If you are triggered via infrared (using your D90 flash to trigger) set the pop up flash to Commander mode and it should all work fine then. If your using a radio trigger then follow the instructions. Good luck.

As a set note, I generally keep my ISO at 200 using the D90 and strobes. With studio light you shouldnt have to up it at all.

sbakewell0508 · Apr 16, 2011

I CAN NOT EXPRESS how thankful i am that i posted on this site, i had posted on a few others any noone helped me!! i knew i was missing something and as soon as the right person read my posts i would get the answer that i was looking for thank you so much for your help.. and yeah the d90 sync speed is only 200, at 250 i get the nice shutter bar in my picture that is oh so attractive.

AGAIN THANK YOU very much, now i just need to wake up my children from their nap so i can use them as photo subjects!!