Help!!?? Lighting & Exposure Xmas Pics

[MicroMommy]

Hello... I'm having some difficulty with everything! LOL...

I just got a 3 pc light kit and I have the Canon T1i... I'm shooting in aperture priority leaving the lens wide open b/c I thought that would let the most light in. Two of my lights have umbrellas, one does not.

This is what I did... I pointed one umbrella towards the wall behind us and the other two lights directed at the subject (my son). The built in flash was on auto flash and did trigger. I used the short lens 18-55mm. My white balance was set to white fluorescent light.

Why does it seem overexposed... and how do I get the whole color/light/image in general to look better? I can't seem to figure this all out... My ultimate goal is to be able to take studio photography like this picture Joyful Christmas - Photograph at BetterPhoto.com

How do I get there???

Please know these images are not framed and no special attention was given to the background or composition... I was strictly snapping to play with the lighting.



EXIF:
AP
55mm
1/200
ISO 1600
f/5.6

[mandyatm]

What kind of lights do you have? Continuous? Strobes? For strobes I set my WB to flash, and for continuous it should be on tungsten. The first thing I noticed was the bluish colors, probably due to the incandescent WB. I would start with 1 or 2 lights, then add more once you master those. Start with one and a reflector. Put the light a at a 45 degree angle to the subject, and use a reflector on the other side to fill in the shadows. Once you can correctly expose with one light, add a fill light behind you at 2 stops below the other, or just farther away, I am not sure what range your lights have. The 3rd light can be used as a background light or hair light, but I don't think 3 lights are necessary to light the subject. Did you say you are using on-camera flash? Or is that just triggering your other lights?

I hope this helps you!

[NicoleScraps]

Definitely not an expert here, but with lights I would think that you would get best results in manual, not one of the priority modes. They are going to meter off the ambient light which is irrelevant (kind of) when you are using off camera flash.
I just got a light and this is what I do.
Set the camera to M
ISO to 200
Aperture open as much as I can depending on the lens
Shutter speed, start at 1/200
test shot, view the photo on the screen, look at the histogram, etc
Slow down the shutter as needed or bump up the ISO.

Like I said, I am not an expert, still learning myself. But this has been working for me to learn.

[MicroMommy]

Thank you both! Mandyatm & NicoleScraps

Mandyatm... I pointed one light at 45 degrees and changed my WB to tungsten and this is what I got. I immediately noticed a better difference in the coloring! (P.S. my lights are continuous hot lights)



NicoleScraps... I can't wait to play around with your suggestion tomorrow. My poor kid (my guinea pig, lol) is in bed now, but I am always open to trying whatever has worked for other people!

I want to get good with lighting I just don't really know where or what to read to teach myself. You guys have been a great help to me already

Any more critique's still welcome!

[NicoleScraps]

Well, the suggestion that I made was in thinking that you had some sort of stobe. A continuous light should allow the camera to meter itself correctly using one of the priority modes. But you could still play with the manual settings. See what you come up with.

[mandyatm]

I would say the second try was much better! Yes if you have continuous lights, you can use Av mode if you prefer.