new to using strobes

okay i got a hotshoe adaptor for the power pack, 3 strobes, NOW, how do i get

proper exposure from my olympus? if it says exposure is okay, then of course my

photos are WAY overexposed using the strobes, any suggestions?

Join the Olympus list at Zuikoholics and check their archives, Dr Flash there has lots of good resources.

get a meter that reads flash and if it has both spot and incident modes, read the instructions about how to use it in incident mode.

I guess from your description that you're referring to studio strobes, not an on-camera electronic flash unit. If so, I think Ellis has told you what you need to do. About your reference to "it says exposure is okay", though.... I assume that the "it" you're referring to is the camera's light meter. The camera's meter is looking at the light available WITHOUT the strobe, so of course if the camera is set for a correct exposure without flash and you fire a flash during the exposure, that's going to ruin it. The camera's light meter is meaningless for flash photography, so you need to ignore it. Set the camera manually, with the shutter speed set at the X synch speed (you don't mention what Olympus you have, so I can't tell you what speed that would be), and set the lens aperture according to the reading from a flash meter.

 

If your Olympus is digital (or you have lots of film and time), you can determine the correct aperture experimentally by taking a number of shots at different apertures and comparing the results and/or the exposure histograms.

i cant find the Zuikoholics...have a web address?

You need to get a flash meter. (as mentioned), or... if digital you can use trial and error. The in-camera meter is useless for studio flash.

 

I recently started using studio strobes and it's initially a bit difficult to get your head around exposure.

 

Set the flash meter to the iso you are using, then hold it roughly where the object is and point it to where the camera will be and then press the button on the remote to fire the strobes (or you can connect the PC cord directly to the flash meter and fire it that way, read the instructions on the flash meter because some of them work differently).

 

The flash meter will give you the correct aperture to use, and you set the camera's shutter speed to whatever it's sync speed is. The other thing you have to get used to is that flash is the only form of photography where shutter speed doesn't matter. The flash burst will provide 95% of the light in the exposure in 1/10000 sec or so. so it won't make much difference if the shutter speed is 1/250sec or 1/30 sec. also because of this you can handhold a 200mm lens even if your camera is set to 1/60 sec or 1/30 sec without getting motion blur.

With digital you can quickly get a feel for appropriate settings without the aid of a flash meter. Go here and read the Lighting 101 section to get you started with off camera lighting:

 

http://www.strobist.com

 

Matthew