strobe lighting help

[dan_kraft]

Greetings, this is my first posted question. I have had a canon 30d for a 1 1/2 years. It was my first slr camera and I

have learned on the fly with resulting in some great outdoor photos. I recently was given 4 Interfit 150's strobes with

some muslin backgrounds. I have set the backgrounds up in my basement with the lights and begun taking a few

portrait photos. I have some problems though. When I zoom in there seems to be a harsh bright light that bounces

off the person I'm shooting. When I zoom out, it looks much better but seems to be darker towards the last third of

the photo. I have my main light set at full. What should my fill light be set as? What about my hair light that I

mounted on the ceiling? I am using a 24-105mf/4.0 lens. I set it on Manual. 250 speed, 6.3 to 7.1 aperatrure and

200 ISO. I plan on taking a class but just thought if I could swing something for the holiday that would be cool. I have

family coming in from out of town and thought some good portraits would be fun. I hope I gave enough info for

someone out there to help me. Also, the Interfits have a dial on them that has full on one side and then 1/8 on the

other side. Please help! Thanks, Dan

[cabbiinc]

An example of a problem shot would help us help you.

 

"When I zoom out, it looks much better but seems to be darker towards the last third of the photo."

 

Sounds to me like your flashes aren't all syncing at the same moment. I have this problem as well some times. Drop your shutter speed to 1/200 or 1/160 and see if you see any improvement.

 

"...there seems to be a harsh bright light that bounces off the person I'm shooting."

 

If your light is aimed at your lens, it will pick it up. You may need to flag your light to keep it from shining towards your lens. Or it could possibly be that your lighting is too bright, or it could be that you just have harsh light. Are you shooting through an umbrella or softbox?

 

"I have my main light set at full. What should my fill light be set as? What about my hair light that I mounted on the ceiling?"

 

Your asking about ratios. Start with a 1:2 ratio with the main/fill and adjust to taste. This coincides with the dial on the back of the strobe question. If both strobes are the same power (150w/s), and they are the same distance from the subject, then you would set the fill light to 1/2. From what you wrote it sounds like you don't have a mark for that so you will have to guess and check your LCD screen on your camera.

 

Regarding powers on your strobes, when you halve the power you lose one stop of light. So if at full power from one strobe your getting f/8, then 1/2 power would be f/5.6, halve that again (1/4) and you would have a "proper exposure" at f/4, halve that again (1/8) and a proper exposure would be f/2.8. So if you had one strobe set to full, and the other set to 1/8, then you would have a 1:4 ratio, you probably don't want to be that drastic. For the hairlight you probably want to be a little above the power of the background light. The purpose of the hairlight is partially for separation from the background.

 

Dan

[dan_kraft]

Dan, Thanks for your response. I will check the shutter speed and adjust to your suggestion. I am hoping that I can find a setting(s) on the lights so that I can just leave them on those settings and not have to worry about it.

 

I do have white umbrellas.

 

Thanks. Dan

[Charles_Webster]

Check out Chuck Gardner's tutorials on speedlights and portraiture on his web site: http://super.nova.org/DPR/

 

They were very helpful to me when I first started.

 

<Chas>

[picturesque]

Canon suggests that with studio lights, you use shutter speeds of not faster than 1/125th. Dan might be correct also about the flare. Otherwise, the fill light is generally one stop less than the key light. The hair light is the same as the key light for brunettes, maybe pulled back a stop for blondes. The background light is generally the same as the key light. These will be hard to measure without a flash meter.

 

An old trick of studio photographers is to tie a string on the flash stand that represents the distance the flash should be from the subject for a given f stop. That way, you can repeat set ups easily, once tested.

[dan_kraft]

Charles & Nadine, Thanks for the tips. I have another question. Are light meters hard to figure out? Which one do you suggest? I don't have a lot of money to invest but if I can get a decent one that's dependable that would be great. Thanks, Dan

[picturesque]

Light meters aren't hard to figure out. I like Sekonics. The Sekonic 328 (I think) is a good, basic one.

[bob_osullivan]

"When I zoom in there seems to be a harsh bright light that bounces off the person I'm shooting. "

 

It sounds like you need some light modification. Are you using the lights with just the reflectors? A softbox would be best, but white bounce umbrellas will do and are much cheaper/easier. This will soften the light.

[dan_kraft]

I went out and purchased a sekonic 380 meter. Watched some tutorials on the web. Seemed not to difficult but had problems last night while working with it. One tutuorial said to meter each light individually and another said all 3 or 4 lights at once to get a proper reading. I'm trying a 4 light set up trying to get the following readings: main 8 fill 5.6 background 8 hair 8. I was told that these readings are good for good photos.?. I was shooting at ISO 100 at 1/125 and 1/60. Any simple suggestions out there would be great. Thanks all for your suggestions so far.

[picturesque]

And what were the problems you had? The only thing I would say that might help, based on what you've said so far, is that light is additive. If you set up a 1:3 ratio, you will get about 1/3 to 1/2 stop more light overall--as in when you meter with all the lights at once. The background and hair light should not impact the overall reading that much, although if you are working in a very tight space with white or light walls, the sheer amount of light will impact the reading if you meter all of them at once. The guidelines I gave you above were just that--guidelines. You can pull the hair light back (be sure you aren't getting flare in the lens from that) and pull back or increase the background light depending upon how you want the background rendered, although if you pull it back too far, you will begin to see the subject's shadow on the background, if placed in such a way as to produce a shadow. If you bring the subject well forward of the background, you shouldn't have this problem.

 

When I set up a portrait shot, I meter each flash separately, keeping in mind that light is additive.

[twmeyer]

I suggest you put two of your lights back in the boxes they came in. Learn how to make a good portrait with one light. Make a lot of them. Then get a second light out. Learn how to use two lights. A year from now get the third light out if you feel it's necessary... t<div></div>