Studio lighting too bright.

[Cinbride]

Just a general question. I have 2 powered the whole way down but I have silver w/ black back umbrellas on. It washes out my subjects. I have to go about 12 ft away. Would the silver be causing too much light? Should I maybe try a white or softbox. They are neweer. 250w. thanks

 

[VVFF]

Just a general question. I have 2 powered the whole way down but I have silver w/ black back umbrellas on. It washes out my subjects. I have to go about 12 ft away. Would the silver be causing too much light? Should I maybe try a white or softbox. They are neweer. 250w. thanks

Not sure I understand you...can't you just lower your exposure?

 

[Suburbanmom]

Check your ISO, you may have it set too high.

 

[AlbertZeroK]

Increase your shutter speed or decrease the iso or increase your apature.

What mode are you shooting in on your camera

 

[Cinbride]

Thanks. Yeah I think I need to change the subjects I'm trying this on. It's really hard to try and adjust when the kids don't want to sit still. I'm going to look at it tonight. I was shooting in P most of the time. I did try and adjust the iso but they actually look better on the computer than the lcd. I'll check it out and get back to you. I just got these umbrellas and wasnt sure if it was just too much light reflecting. I was going to get white but these came with my set.

 

[MICKEY88]

how are you triggering the lights

it's best to shoot in manual with studio lights

start around f8 1/125 then adjust your aperture from there..

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Just a general question. I have 2 powered the whole way down but I have silver w/ black back umbrellas on. It washes out my subjects. I have to go about 12 ft away. Would the silver be causing too much light? Should I maybe try a white or softbox. They are neweer. 250w. thanks

Increase your shutter speed or decrease the iso or increase your apature.

What mode are you shooting in on your camera

Thanks. Yeah I think I need to change the subjects I'm trying this on. It's really hard to try and adjust when the kids don't want to sit still. I'm going to look at it tonight. I was shooting in P most of the time. I did try and adjust the iso but they actually look better on the computer than the lcd. I'll check it out and get back to you. I just got these umbrellas and wasnt sure if it was just too much light reflecting. I was going to get white but these came with my set.

Unless you are using speedlites or some type of strobe that connects to the camera's TTL metering system, you have to shoot in Manual exposure mode. When you press the shutter, your camera's meter reads the amount of light in the scene. Unless you are in full manual mode (manual shutter speed, manual aperture, and manual ISO), your camera will adjust the exposure for the light that it sees. Then your shutter will open and the flash will fire. The light from the flash wasn't there when the camera metered the scene, so that light will cause the picture to overexpose.

If you are using speedlites or some other TTL controlled lighting, the camera will meter the scene, test fire the flash and meter it that way, then make adjustments. That is why you don't need to be in manual mode when using a built in flash or some other flash that the camera controls.

Ideally, you use a light meter when using strobes. You pick the settings for your camera (ISO and aperture) and use the light meter to adjust the lights to match. In the digital world, it isn't that hard to do a reasonable job without a light meter.

First, set your camera to the lowest normal ISO (usually 100 or 200). Next, set your aperture to an aperture that works well for your lens and situation. That is usually between f/8 and f/11. Most lenses perform better stopped down to f/8 and you'll get more of your picture in focus that you would with a wider aperture. Above f/11 and you'll start to notice a loss of sharpness because of diffraction. The sweet spot is usually f/8 to f/11.

For your shutter speed, use the fastest flash sync speed that works with your camera. That can be anywhere from 1/60 to 1/250. If you don't know, try 1/200. If you set it too fast, you'll notice because part of your picture will be much darker than the rest. That's because the flash went off without your shutter being all the way open.

Once you have the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed set, start adjusting your lights. I would take one shot with them all off to start with. This shot should be WAY to dark. If it isn't, you have a lot of ambient light already, and that means that you won't be able to use much extra light from your strobes. If that is the case, darken the room lights (or cover the windows). You can also make sure aperture smaller (higher f-number) or your ISO lower.

After you've taken your dark shot, turn on your main light. Take a few test shots with it until you get an exposure that works for you. After that, turn on your fill light and adjust it until you like the look. In most situations, you want the fill light to eliminate the dark shadows but not to compete with the main light. If you have more lights, go through the process with each of them.

One thing that confuses a lot of new studio light shooters is shutter speed. It doesn't really do anything. Most of your light should be coming from your strobes. Your strobes fire very fast. They are usually done in far less than 1/1000th of a second. If you adjust your shutter speed from 1/60 to 1/250, normally your picture should get much darker because you are only letting in 1/4 the amount of light. With the strobes, however, all of the light comes in that ultra fast burst and whether you leave the lens open for 1/60 or 1/250 doesn't make much difference. If it does, that means you have a lot of ambient (non-flash) light and that's rarely a good thing when you are doing studio shots.

If you do all of this and your pictures are too dark with your lights on full blast, you can adjust your aperture wider (lower f-number) or your ISO higher. If you widen your aperture, less of your picture will be in focus and your lens won't perform quite as well. If you increase your ISO, you'll have more noise in your picture. Neither is terrible if you don't have to adjust too much.

Another adjustment is the placement of your lights. Obviously, the closer they are, the brighter they will be. Closer lights are also softer. The softness of a light depends on it's relative size to the subject. A bigger ligth is a softer light. A closer light is bigger relative to the subject, so it is also softer.

Silver umbrellas are very light effecient, but they create a very directional rather than diffused light. That's good when you want a lot of detail (like seeing a pet's fur) but not so good when you don't want a lot of detail (like in a middle aged person's face). I generally prefer white umbrellas or soft boxes for people and use silver reflectors only for non-people shots.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

I just got these umbrellas and wasnt sure if it was just too much light reflecting. I was going to get white but these came with my set.

Anytime you are using anything specular as a light source it will be brighter.