camera settings for alien bee strobes

[sage_major]

I just bought a set of alienbees after doing a bunch of research, way

over my price range aggeed to with the wife.

I have a drebel and am using manual mode.

The ambien light is showing a slightly underexposed picutre and if I

use no flash its a bit dark. When I turn the strobes on the picture

is verry orange. I am using daylight WB (the sun) and am using f5.6

and 1/60 I have modified both settings systematically to try and get

a reasonable picture but am still getting very orange pictures.

Can anyone help on what I should be using?

 

I know the answer is buy a light meter but I spent way more then I was

allowed to already and that will have to wait.

 

I am using a 50 1.8 lens

Thanks

Sage

[larry_ballew1]

How are you firing the strobes? The best way would be to get an inexpensive hot shoe to PC connection so you can connect one of the strobes to your camera.

 

If you have enough ambient light from tungsten bulbs to get a "slightly underexposed" picture and you add some daylight balanced flash to it, you'll still end up with an orange picture when shooting with daylight WB. You need to either cut back on your ambient lighting or crank up the flash power enough to make it insignificant. Make it easy on yourself and just turn the room lights off. See if that helps.

 

I'm doing a fair amount of guessing at what you're doing. You can skate by without a flash meter for a while if you don't mind some trial and error. The histogram is your friend.

[beauh44]

Hi Sage, I think one reason for the orange pictures is that you're using daylight WB as opposed to flash (usually designated by the little "lightning bolt" icon). If you shoot in RAW mode, you can change WB after the shot with your Canon software. You can also use finer increments by adjusting the color temperature in your RAW converter, or perhaps in-camera if supported by the drebel. (It's much easier to do in the RAW converter) I know you spent a lot on your lights, but it'll be very important to get a flash meter as soon as you can. You might try E-Bay for that. Good luck!

[chris_ladoulis]

Sage, the ambient light and the modeling lights of your strobe may be affecting the color of your light. The AlienBees are about 5600k, slightly higher than most "Daylight" WB Settings. Check the manual for which setting approximates 5600k and start there. Then turn off the ambient lights and modeling lamps and try again. This should get you closer.

 

I assume you're using a hotshoe mounted PC adapter to fire the AB's?

[kevin_deane]

Sage,

 

I don't mean to be impolite, but you had your priorities backwards. Before spending $1

-2K on a nice set of mono lights, you should have invested in a $250 flash meter. You'll

really need a meter to work out the ratios between your various lights as well as the

general exposure.

 

In addition to what has been said above, if you set your lights to produce about 5 stops

more light than the ambient, then you should effectively shut out the ambient light from

your image. So, if the ambient light meters at 1/15 at f2.8, set your camera to 1/125

(assuming it will sync that high) and f5.6, then set your lights to put out f5.6 at the

distance to the subject.

[splat]

There are 2 possible problems as stated by others. Either your ambient light is making the picture orange or your WB setting. The first possibility is easy to test. Turn your lights way up and adgust the fstop to give you correct exposure. Is it still orange? If so the problem is almost certainly with the WB setting on your camera. I have a Digital Rebel too and find those built in WB settings almost useless. Try a custom WB setting. Custom WB is the only way I have been able to get consistently white whites. Of course shotting RAW will also eliminate the WB problem.