what in the world am i doing wrong?

[sbakewell1101]

Facts:

Nikon D90
Tripod
Indoor studio lighting kit: CowboyStudio Photography Lighting | Studio Equipment | Studio Accessories

Ok so i am just so confused! I am mainly an outdoor photographer with having such a small house I have no room to do in studio type of work, I have worked at a studio doing indoor lighting so i am familiar with the equipment, however this place was had very controlled lighting, and I realize i am new to the whole indoor portrait stuff, none the less I purchased the above mentioned studio kit for doing stuff in my home or to travel to clients homes, I tried to shoot my own children today and well not getting good results!

The problem:

I can not for the life of me get my camera to shoot decent pictures with these lights, I get better results with my external flash off camera, these lights on the back have a dial and you can dial up the power. So i set only two of these lights up (should be plenty of light for this small room) go to take a picture and my shutter speed is waaaaaaaaaaaay to slow switch to manual adjust shutter speed and aperature and picture is completely dark... dial up the flashes picture still dark, swtich back to program mode way to bright with a slow shutter speed! i have no idea what i am doing wrong! i was trying to use my 50mm 1.8 lens, switched lens to my 18-105mm lens, switched back to manual and it would at least shoot at 60 for the shutter speed but the aperature had to be 22. pictures were coming out blue, adjusted white balance to over compensate for this .. get the pictures onto the computer and they are still dark, while they are fixable I don't feel this acceptable I should be able to get decent pictures with these strobes on any mode with a decent shutter speed, i just don't know what i am doing wrong, i am firing these lights with a remote that comes in the kit i even double checked to make sure they were fresh batteries... oh and when i do happen to get a decent picture the skin tone is waaay washed out and nasty.

anyone have this same problem or have this particular lighting set up that can shed some light on this subject? any help would be hugely appreciated. here are two examples there are more located at my flickr stream: Flickr: stefaniebakewellphotography's Photostream these pcitures have the power at about half.

[jdepould]

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[sbakewell1101]

how do i delete this post and start over?

[sbakewell1101]

i did a little reading and it makes sense that you have to be in manual mode when shooting with studio lights...which i was when i got the shots working... i plugged another light in and messed with it and got some better photos... i guess i will just have to keep playing with it.

[zona5101]

i looked at the exif data on a couple of your shots and it was 1/60 at f22!!!

F22 isn't going to work...you need to open that apreture up a lot more...You are probably going to be at 1/60 at f5.6!
Shoot in manual mode. You're cameras meter isn't going to know the lights are there and won't be able to meter for them. If you don't have a flash meter, you will have to shoot and adjust. Try 1/60 at f5.6 then if too bright move to f8. If still too dark move to f 4...

[i speak in math]

How are you triggering the flashes? In the examples on your flickr, the flash isn't contributing to the exposure. This means, either your flashes aren't going off at all, or they aren't syncing with your camera for whatever reason.

I also agree, try f/5.6, ISO 100 and somewhere between 1/60 and 1/200 (shutter speed has no effect on flash as long as you are under sync). Your white balance should either be set to 5600k or flash for consistency, not auto.

[kevingeary]

Those lights aren't nearly powerful enough. 110 watts? And at half power through a softbox? I don't see that happening.

But even with cheap lights like this...you should have gotten brighter pictures. I could have gotten brighter pictures with no lights.

Go to manual mode: ISO 200, f5.6, 1/100 and then start adjusting from there.

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by gomer4378

A lot of flashes wont even fire unless your above 1/200

This is complete nonsense and can be ignored.