Lights too bright

Sara Anderson

Sara Anderson

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Hi, I've bought a home studio kit recently which has 3 strobes, soft boxes, umbrellas.. Etc. I've been renting lights and quite familiar with the setting. The new strobes I have are of 300 watts hence the photos turn out to be over exposed. I tried keeping the lights to the lowest level but still over exposed. Tried reducing the aperture but the highlights are still over exposed n the shadows are too dark. I shoot on 1/160 which is the closest to sync speed.
Please help! I'm not ready to invest in a new kit. Do you guys think using a high degree ND filter would help?
 
What aperture/ISO are you shooting at. Sync speed has nothing to do with exposure on flash guns...
 
an idea of what you're shooting, distance from the lights to the subject would be good, + fstop and iso to help
 
I'm shooting at ISO100 n f13-16.. I'm shooting people. I'm using strobes with softbox not flash guns.
 
What model flash, can you turn the power down (a lot).
 
Sara Anderson said:
I'm shooting at ISO100 n f13-16.. I'm shooting people. I'm using strobes with softbox not flash guns.
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Have you tried moving the heads back
 
Try moving the flash further away from the subject, Also try bouncing the flash off of a reflector to reduce the exposure. Shooting through a softbox will lose some light as well.
Alternatively, you could place neutral density filters over the flash heads to reduce the output, or one over the lens (though not as good).
 
boyfalldown said:
Have you tried moving the heads back
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You mean the lights back? Yes I did but then the light spreads all over my subject while I want it concentrated at one area.. Anyways thanks for your help will try working around it
 
Sara Anderson said:
You mean the lights back? Yes I did but then the light spreads all over my subject while I want it concentrated at one area.. Anyways thanks for your help will try working around it
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yes, I did. I have to admit I'm a little surprised your lights are too powerful. I know its a hassle, but why not post photos, and also explain exactly what you're trying to achieve. Then we might be a little more able to help ;)
 
Sara, if you could post an example image then that would really help people to advise you.

It would help even more if you could post a shot of the whole setup.
 
Hi Sara I have the same problem, are your lights the Neewer 330D `I use mine in a hilite and the lowest I can get them down too is F16
 
bustersdelight said:
Hi Sara I have the same problem, are your lights the Neewer 330D `I use mine in a hilite and the lowest I can get them down too is F16
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Yes, you got it right I do have the Neewer 300. I do go up to f14. The intensity if the light does go down but then the shadows get too dark.. What do you do?
 
Jerm said:
Sara, if you could post an example image then that would really help people to advise you.

It would help even more if you could post a shot of the whole setup.
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Thanks jerm, my clients are very private when it comes to their photos 'sigh' will try to do a sample shot with a friend n upload them.
 
If I've got this right you're trying to control the shadows by proximity.
If you're unable to turn the lights down further your options are ND filters or different light modifiers.

Can't you find a guinea pig to practice on that isn't so 'private'? So we can offer more accurate advice.
 
Haha Phil yes I can definitely find many.. Anyone is up for a free shoot ;)
What could be other modifiers? Do I place them on the light or on the lens? I have used an ND on the lens in the past and it did help a bit
 
Sara Anderson said:
What could be other modifiers? Do I place them on the light or on the lens? I have used an ND on the lens in the past and it did help a bit
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depends on what you want to do, it sounds above like you want a very controlled area of light on the subject?
 
if you can get the power down on the lighting, using honeycomb filters, with barn doors encapsulation on the head will restrict 'stray' light significantly and even then you may still need to back up the light source away from the object
 
Sara Anderson said:
Yes, you got it right I do have the Neewer 300. I do go up to f14. The intensity if the light does go down but then the shadows get too dark.. What do you do?
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This is probably the cause of your problem, quite simply you have lights that don't have anywhere near as much adjustment as is claimed for them.

The other problem is that these lights don't lend themselves to accessories. Your best bet in this situation is to get a 0.9 neutral density filter, this will reduce the effective power by 3 stops, but should still allow enough light to pass through the lens to allow easy composition and auto focussing (assuming that you have a decent lens on your camera).

Reducing the effective power won't help with the shadows getting "too dark" though, the cure for that is knowledge, and if you post some examples I'm sure that you will get help with that too. You won't be very popular if you post nude shots on this forum, leaving aside the 'privacy' of your clients, but any shots will do for the purpose.
 
If you're very close and wanting just a small pool of light, you'll struggle to get any studio head down far enough.

Another suggestion might be to shoot with just the modelling light, and change white balance to tungsten.
 
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