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Gary752

Ok, received my SRs Strobie 130 flashes, and Tiny Triggers this past week. I called my friend up and asked if I could borrow her daughters for a few shots, and they agreed to sit for one, since it was hot and muggy, so I rushed to set up 2 flashes, and fired off a quick shot. This is what I got. One thing I noticed is I need to get the flashes a bit higher, and I should have maybe added a 3rd for a hair light. I was rushed so I didn't have time to try other options, so when it cools off a bit and can get them out again, I'll try other options, including any tips/suggestions made here.

ISO 100 - f4 - 1/320 - Flash Power was 1/64 @ 3ft



Ok, let me know what I did wrong, and what to do to fix it the next time.

GaryB

jonh68

When shooting outdoors, try using the sun as a highlight.

You have already mentioned the shortcomings and your light needs to be encompass all the subjects, or at least the important parts. Too much falloff at the top.

Also, when practicing, find someone that will let you actually practice and not do quick hitters. You don't learn much and don't have anything to study afterwords. If nothing else take stuffed animals and practice on them. Work on different light angles to make the light interesting and dramatic.

Qarik

1st I have to say you are jumping into this waay too fast. you have 2 strobes, 3 subjects, and are outside. Every factor here is complicating factor.

Do this:

1) start with one strobe
2) get a shoot through umbrella (say 40 inches)
3) start with one person
4) practice shooting inside

Start by reading everything this guys writes here:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

He will start at the level you need right now.

kdog

Your exposure time exceeded your max synch speed of 1/250s. That's most likely what caused the weird light fall-off issues. With manual flashes, I never exceed 1/160th with my Canon gear. With Nikon you could probably go up to 1/200, but no more.

Hackbone

Definitely check you sync time on camera and are the flashes capable of High Speed Sync?

The young lady in pink, just above her t shirt there are odd cross shadows or is that an article of clothing underneath. If they are shadows you never want cross lighting shadows. That tends to mean both lights are at the same power to create identical patterns......this tends to cancel out lighting effects.

kdog

Hackbone wrote: »

Definitely check you sync time on camera and are the flashes capable of High Speed Sync?

They're not, and neither are his triggers capable of HSS. Max synch speed on that system is 1/250th according to their website.

jonh68

kdog wrote: »

Your exposure time exceeded your max synch speed of 1/250s. That's most likely what caused the weird light fall-off issues. With manual flashes, I never exceed 1/160th with my Canon gear. With Nikon you could probably go up to 1/200, but no more.

Maybe. When I exceed synch speed with my nikons using AB's I get a black bar at the bottom, but never at the top and bottom. Curious if it is different with this setup.

kdog

jonh68 wrote: »

Maybe. When I exceed synch speed with my nikons using AB's I get a black bar at the bottom, but never at the top and bottom. Curious if it is different with this setup.

I agree with what you're saying. Of course where you get the black bar is dependent on how you're holding the camera. I'm thinking the dark area at the top of the shot is the usual bar that we see, and the bottom is just natural light fall-off. It looks to me like the upper portion falls off a lot more than the lower portion. Either way, it's unlikely those flashes are working correctly at that shutterspeed.

Dooginfif20

I have to agree with my friend Qarik on this one. I would have had no idea you shot these with strobes as there is too many flaws in this photo. Shutter speed is too high, you aperture is to open when the subject in the back is not very close to the same focal plane to be shooting at f/4, none of them really look that sharp. I think you need to:

A) get some sort of modifier (umbrella, softbox, PLM)
learn with one light, then through in a kicker/fill, then throw in a rim if you need it/want it
C) practice practice practice

Gary752

So everyone knows, there was no black bar(s) top, nor bottom. The problem was I didn't have any light stands, so I used some old tripods, and couldn't get the flashes up high enough. That part has been remedied as I ordered some light stands last night. The light fall off you see at the bottom is actually a vignette I applied to sorta even out the light fall off from top to bottom. Now for the flash sync speed. I read somewhere that when using the lower power settings of the flash, you are capable of pushing the shutter speed above the flash sync speed without any ill effects, that's why I tried it. They said that at the lower power settings the duration of the flash is so short that the flash has already gone off by the time the shutter starts to close. I believe this was also brought up on Creative Live a while back, and they had diagrams to explain it.

GaryB

Hackbone

Yes, at lower power the flash duration can be much less. When in that situation some flashes have a diffuser that can be pulled out to help spresd the flash some.

kdog

Gary752 wrote: »

I read somewhere that when using the lower power settings of the flash, you are capable of pushing the shutter speed above the flash sync speed without any ill effects, that's why I tried it. They said that at the lower power settings the duration of the flash is so short that the flash has already gone off by the time the shutter starts to close. I believe this was also brought up on Creative Live a while back, and they had diagrams to explain it.

You also exceeded your SR trigger's spec of 1/250th as well, so there may have been cascading errors there. Not sure why you'd want to exceed the manufacturer specifications of brand new gear which you haven't mastered yet, but that's just me.