Using my JTL Light Set

[spcalan]

I have 2 300-watt JTL Mobil Lights and I do not use them enough to get "good" with them.

I used them yesterday and couldnt get a "great' photo from using them.

All of my photos were either black or washed out, nothing in the middle.

I set my 5D in manual, used my Polaris light meter and metered the flash at
f5.6
ISO 400
AP 200

Again, I do not use them enough to get good.

I wish there was a web site on setting up lights/metering lights, as well as the camera part.

[arrgeebee]

Here you go... A wealth of information is here for the taking:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=138912

[Curtis N]

used my Polaris light meter and metered the flash at
f5.6
ISO 400
AP 200That's really not a lot of light for two 300ws strobes.

Are you putting the meter at the subject's position and pointing the dome at the camera?

[spcalan]

Yes. I pointed the meter at the camera and triggered the lights.
That is what the meter told me to set the camera on.

[prime80]

How far away are you from the strobes? I'd have to agree with Curtis that it sounds like too little light for a pair of 300ws strobes. For comparison, when I shoot in our local studio with a pair of AB400 strobes about 8 feet from subject (with one at 1/2 power), my typical metering is f/13 at ISO100. That's a 4.5 stop difference using strobes that are probably pretty close in power to what you're using.

[Jim M]

Are you using a light modifier of any sort, like umbrellas or soft boxes? How are you firing the strobes? Radio remote or PC cord?

For the under exposed pictures, it seems to me that you are either getting a mis-timed flash or no flash at all some of the time and when it does flash properly, it is over exposing. It could be caused by a loose PC cord socket or a radio remote with weak batteries. This presumes that there is no problem with the flash units themselves.

As for the over exposure, I don't have a clue unless you are somehow measuring only the ambient light and not the flash or are inadvertently shading the meter. I don't know how the Polaris meters are configured by the user to measure flash, so I can't give you any advice about possible glitches in procedure.

[spcalan]

I am using umbrellas, and I am triggering the strobes directly from the 5D, via the pc cord.
The flashed are going off, but the photos are not as good As I think they should

[arrgeebee]

I am using umbrellas, and I am triggering the strobes directly from the 5D, via the pc cord.
The flashed are going off, but the photos are not as good As I think they should

Can you post some examples?