Confused about lighting.......

Bobsyeruncle

Bobsyeruncle

Suspended / Banned
Messages
17,422
Name
Bob
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi Guys,

I have some studio equipment that I've had for around 25 years. I originally started with one Courtney solaflash 1000 light unit, a reflective brolly and a separate reflector. I used that for years and produced many photos that I was more than happy with.
A year or so ago I bought a couple of solaflash 1250 units very cheaply from ebay. Last year I took some portraits using the camera that I had at the time, a lumix g3. I used one of the 1250 units at the front with a soft box, and the other two were used to light the background. Again, I was more than happy with the results.
I use a lencarta radio flash trigger to trigger the lights.
Today I took some shots of my grand kids using my nikon D7000 and the same lighting set up.
My old flash meter suggested f11.
When I used the trigger on the hot shoe, the pics were severely overexposed and the only way I could get anything remotely acceptable was to use 1/250 and f36.
I was able to use the on camera flash to trigger the lighting, but they were them seriously under exposed. Changing the settings did produce better results and was able to get some shots that way.
I'm not sure if using the trigger could cause the lights to be more powerful, or the on camera flash made them less powerful etc.
Any thoughts? It was in the same room at my sons house as last time.
Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Make sure your ISO is set at 100, then set a shutter speed of 1/180 or 1/125. The only variable then should be the aperture and the flash power. Set the lights on their lowest setting and see what your flash meter says, as the 1000 is only 100Ws it should be quite low.

You changed too many things to nail down the issue, the trigger should be fine, using the onboard flash, the lights were probably triggered by a preflash.

I'd guess your first problem was simply auto ISO, then you complicated things by taking the triggers out and using the onboard flash.
 
Phil V said:
Make sure your ISO is set at 100, then set a shutter speed of 1/180 or 1/125. The only variable then should be the aperture and the flash power. Set the lights on their lowest setting and see what your flash meter says, as the 1000 is only 100Ws it should be quite low.

You changed too many things to nail down the issue, the trigger should be fine, using the onboard flash, the lights were probably triggered by a preflash.

I'd guess your first problem was simply auto ISO, then you complicated things by taking the triggers out and using the onboard flash.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I'll have another go. I'll turn off auto ISO first. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top