Please Help!

photogchick · Dec 17, 2011

So I very prematurely went out and bought the promaster basic lighting kit. NOW WHAT! I figures I would just take it home and play. Well I got it set up but I have a few BASIC questions. Please don't laugh at me :lol:

First of all, it came with one white umbrella and one black/silver umbrella. Do I use these together? Next question is, the camera only hooks up to one light, how do I use both lights? Do I have to go buy more????

I know this is probably really basic for a lot of you but I am so excited to use it I just need to know HOW!

Rephargotohp · Dec 17, 2011

The white Umbrella, since you just said it is white and not white Black.I assume is a shoot through Umbrella,You don't reflect your strobes off of it, you shoot through it.
The black silver is a reflector umbrella, You shoot your strobe at it and it reflects on your subject.

You can hook up to the one strobe with your sync cord. Most strobes also have an optical sensor to fire when the strobe you have plugged into fires. Just don't plu anything into the second strobe because that bypasses the optical trigger

photogchick · Dec 17, 2011

So what you are saying is that I plug in the light with the white umbrella and leave the other one unplugged? I wonder why the kit came with 2 strobes but I'm really only plugging one in? I'm hoping in a few months these questions will sound ridiculous.

Rephargotohp · Dec 17, 2011

photogchick said:
So what you are saying is that I plug in the light with the white umbrella and leave the other one unplugged? I wonder why the kit came with 2 strobes but I'm really only plugging one in? I'm hoping in a few months these questions will sound ridiculous.

OK,just so we are clear, They both get plugged into electricity (pardon if that s a dumb statement). If you got a Sync Cable with them,Plug that it the sync port on one of the strobes and then into your camera's sync output. The other one should fire with an optical Trigger that is built into it ( I am assuming it has one, I'll look at promatsre in a sec to make sure)

Rephargotohp · Dec 17, 2011

OK,I think I foumd the kit you got, It doesn't say it comes with a sync cord. But it does say they have optical sensors. Without a sync cord or wreless triggers,the only way you could fire them is to use the Flash on your camera.You would have to set that to Manual Flash Otherwise the Preflash would set off the strobes prematurely if set to auto flash

photogchick · Dec 17, 2011

Ok! I think I may have it... So much to learn. I guess I need to just figure out all of the "buttons" on the stones and where to place both the umbrellas. A lot of the tutorials on line show a 3 light system.
Thank you so much for your help. When I call the camera store they kind of chuckled at me like I was an idiot. I'm not pretending to know what I"m doing

Rephargotohp · Dec 17, 2011

Honestly, The best way to learn lighting is to start with one light, master that then add your second light.Often times what people do is they just put one on one side, one on the other side and that just gives you flat boring light.

Learn on one light and learn how to place it to get the different styles of lighting,Loop Lighting, Butterfly light, Rembrandt, Which side of the face to light,the light closest (broad lighting) of the side farthest away (short Lighting). Then you can add the second light to fill in deep shadows. or you can use it to light your backdrop

photogchick · Dec 17, 2011

It did come with one sync cord. I'm assuming I can only plug one in. When I shoot my camera through the white umbrella the other one does something! Not sure what but I'm assuming it is working.

I'm laughing at myself while I am typing this....

Tiberius47 · Dec 17, 2011

photogchick said:
So I very prematurely went out and bought the promaster basic lighting kit. NOW WHAT! I figures I would just take it home and play. Well I got it set up but I have a few BASIC questions. Please don't laugh at me

No worries. We all had to start somewhere.

First of all, it came with one white umbrella and one black/silver umbrella. Do I use these together?

The white umbrella is a shoot through umbrella. It goes between the light and your subject. The light shines through it and the umbrella diffuses the light.

The black on with the silver inside is a reflective umbrella. The light aims away from the subject, hits the inside of the umbrella and then bounces back towards the subject.

Next question is, the camera only hooks up to one light, how do I use both lights? Do I have to go buy more????

The camera triggers the first light, and the rest of the lights should have an optical trigger - they go off when they see the flash from the first one.

Rephargotohp · Dec 17, 2011

photogchick said:
It did come with one sync cord. I'm assuming I can only plug one in. When I shoot my camera through the white umbrella the other one does something! Not sure what but I'm assuming it is working.

I'm laughing at myself while I am typing this....

Laughing is good,Don't get frustrated that the worst part.

Yes, Just plug in one that is all you need.

I assume you don't have a meter, So start with 1/125 Shutter ISO 100 and f8 and your main light on full power.Start from there and adjust as you need.Remember shutter sped does not affect strobe exposure so work with your aperture and the strobe power first

photogchick · Dec 17, 2011

Thank you all so much! This forum has been so helpful to me.... I started really getting into Photography about 1 1/2 years ago but I never thought much about lighting. I feel like this will defiantly take me to the next level. Living in MN winters are brutal so getting outside to shoot doesn't happen a whole lot.
If I were to start with one light I am assuming I use the white umbrella? I'll just leave everything else in the bag.