Could use some help with studio lights...pics included

JulieLawsonPhotography

Okay, I'll try my best to explain the deal. I have studio lights; the main one, two smaller ones that have barn doors and 3 in 1 barn doors and a hair light. Up until a few days ago, I could use my on board flash to trigger the lights. My husband tore apart one of his old film flashes and made me a slave trigger (I'm not certain of all the terminology so bear with me). This trigger is attached to my hot shoe and is save as it is only 6 volts. Anyway, last night we set up the lights and I attached the trigger to my camera and the main light. I think I saw a huge huge difference. Can anyone tell me what they think, if the lights are set up right, if this is the look I should get with lights...etc.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

This is a pic with on board flash firing the lights


This is a few pics of my lights




original pics with trigger/no on board flash

Scott_Quier

These are not bad, but I think you can do a lot better. A quick search for terms like "loop lighting" , "rembrandt lighting", "butterfly lighting" will get you some quite useful information. As a first step, you might want to check out this page (link). It provides a very quick description of each of these (and others) with an example of what you can look for.