Some shots overexposed, no changes made to equipment

[mishmatta]

There's catchlights in her eyes, but not the baby or husband. Both were looking down/away from the camera. The main light was high about 5 1/2 feet up from the floor, facing downward on them.

The alien bees were firing each time.

[mishmatta]

Originally Posted by autofocus

f/0.0???? what's with that?

manual lens - not communicating with the camera. f/8.

[autofocus]

why don't you run a little series of test shots with just the AB and no slaves to see what that yields. If the slaves are constant, and not variable power, the overexposure may be something gone wacky with the AB unit. Can we assume you are plugged into AC with the alien bee, and not working off an accessory battery pack? (all speculative guesses on my part)

[bhursey]

To me the dark picture it looks like only the camera right flash fired. Its either a communication issue or a flash recycle issue. I bet if you tyrn off all strobes but the right one you will get the same effect.

[mishmatta]

Originally Posted by autofocus

why don't you run a little series of test shots with just the AB and no slaves to see what that yields. If the slaves are constant, and not variable power, the overexposure may be something gone wacky with the AB unit. Can we assume you are plugged into AC with the alien bee, and not working off an accessory battery pack? (all speculative guesses on my part)

Problem is I can't replicate. I've never had it happen before, and can't get it to do it again. Just that night, during the course of about 45 minutes, it was happening over and over. I took 80+ shots and 30+ of them were overexposed.

This is a brand new Alien bee unit. Plugged in, no battery pack. I've used it a half a dozen times and never had this problem.

First time though using this old manual lenses with the alien bee. I usually use a newer auto lens with the strobe setup. I thought I'd give the manual a try since its the sharpest in the bunch.

I'm still leaning towards the lens.

[i speak in math]

Are you sure the EXIF data you posted is from the exact images you posted? Perhaps posting the full images with EXIF intact would help. It would help to look for catchlights if the images were larger.

Double check that you don't have Auto EV set to ON. Its in the custom option menu, #10.

I use my K20 in the studio all the time and the exposure is always very consistent.

[mishmatta]

Originally Posted by i speak in math

Are you sure the EXIF data you posted is from the exact images you posted? Perhaps posting the full images with EXIF intact would help. It would help to look for catchlights if the images were larger.

Double check that you don't have Auto EV set to ON. Its in the custom option menu, #10.

I use my K20 in the studio all the time and the exposure is always very consistent.

I'm sure about the EXIF data. I opened each image in photoshop and screen copied the window from each image. I'm enclosing the original image in tact, just cropped around the faces to reduce file size for uploading.

I double checked my EV and it WAS ON!! I turned it off. Could that have caused it???

[sk66]

Originally Posted by mishmatta

I'm sure about the EXIF data. I opened each image in photoshop and screen copied the window from each image. I'm enclosing the original image in tact, just cropped around the faces to reduce file size for uploading.

I double checked my EV and it WAS ON!! I turned it off. Could that have caused it???

Yes, it can/does act as exposure bracketing......