High Key / Lastolite HiLite

[geoff_cardillo]

<p>hi -<br>

i'm shooting portraits with a lastolite hilite background and two strobes: 1 to illuminate the hilite background, and the other to illuminate the front of the subject. for the "front" light, i've been shooting through both a softbox and an umbrella.<br>

after doing light meter readings, i've got the hilite background light set at f9 and the "front" strobe light at f4.5.<br>

my camera (nikon D300) is set to M. <br>

lens is a Nikon 28-70 f2.8.<br>

shutter speed is set at 1/125sec. <br>

ISO is 200<br>

Aperture is set to f4.5 (same as the foreground light)<br>

the strobes are plugged-into a dynalite 1000w power pack.</p>

<p>i'm using the camera as commander for the flashes. yes, the speedlight pops, but (supposedly) only to aid the auto focus.<br>

i'm not crazy about the results that i'm getting for the following reasons:</p>

<p>1 - the faces seem dark/shadowy - i want a bright face<br>

2 - the lighting seems to vary widely from shot-to-shot. i've been doing "tests" with the camera mounted on a tripod and all settings remaining contant.i thought it might be that the lights needed more time between exposures in order to fully recycle. but i've done that. i counted-off 10 seconds between shots and still am not getting consistent results.</p>

<p>i know that the idea (at least one of the ideas) behind high key is the 2-stop variance between the background lighting and foreground light. what i'm wondering is if i should try a different 2-stop variance. say... f5.6 and f11 or f8 and f16<br>

anyway... if you have any suggestions on how to eliminate the shadowy faces or how to get consistent results shot-over-shot, i'd appreciate it.</p>

<p>thanks so much.</p>

<p> </p>

[lornesunley]

<p>Won't the softbox and/or umbrella result in a 1 stop of so of light loss from the front strobe? When you say the front strobe is set to f4.5 is there some kind of light sensor on the strobe to limit its output?<br /> I'd suggest you get a light meter that handles flash and see what it measures for the incident light.</p>

[b_christopher]

<p>Can you post example photos? It's tough to know exactly what you mean by your description of the pictures. It could be anything from lens flare to metering technique.</p>

[lornesunley]

<p>Sorry about the light meter comment... I see you were using one. Have you tried just upping the front strobe output a stop and see if the shadows go away?</p>

[lornesunley]

<p>Is the D300 pop-up flash set to Manual mode? In any other mode it will generate pre-flashes to gauge the flash intensity required and that pre-flash will set off optically triggered strobes.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Check to make sure that you don't have the camera's auto ISO feature turned on. If it is, despite your manual exposure settings, it might be trying to "help" you in ways you're not expecting. Other than that, I agree with Lorne - make sure the pop-up isn't generating any metering or anti-red-eye pre-flashses, since that would be prematurely firing one or more of the slaves.</p>

[geoff_cardillo]

<p>@ lorne - the D300 flash is actually set to the '--' mode. according to the Nikon manual, "the built-in flash does not fire, but the AF-assist illuminator lights. The built-in flash must be raised so that it can emit monitor pre-flashes." in the 'M' mode, the flash will fire at anywhere from Full power to 1/128 power. personally, i wish it just wouldn't fire at all since i'm focusing manually anyway...</p>

<p>i'm going to post some samples - hopefully that'll help...</p>

[lornesunley]

<p>Hi, the "--" setting with the flash in commander mode is your problem. With the -- setting all the flash outputs are the pre-flashes. These occur just before the shutter opens. The length of the flash from your strobes is long enough that you get a partial exposure. Set the pop-up flash to M and the power to 1/128 or as low as it will go. That way you get minimal light output to trigger your other strobes. The pre-flash light from the pop-up is not used for auto-focusing it is used in commander or iTTL mode to determine the flash exposure.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Right! Do not use the commander mode at all (that's only useful when you're using CLS-compatible slaves from Nikon, anyway). Just use simple [M]anual mode, at as low a power setting as you can use while still getting a reliable slave trigger to happen. The CLS commander mode is definitely what's messing with you here, and your slaves, of course, have no idea what that's about.</p>