Studio Lights, Dark Portraits

[Aldwyn]

Folks,

Hoping someone can shed some light here (no pun intended).

I pulled out my AB400s for the first time in ages, and started shooting some self portraits for fun and practice... but I was having issues with light.

2 AB400s using reflective umbrellas were set up, and at full power. One at 6' high, about 6 feet from the subject and at a 40 degree angle faring the right side of the subject. The other at about 3' high on the left side of the subject at about a 60 degree angle, partially lighting the backdrop (black muslin).

The were fired off using my 430EX which was on the shoe of my 40D, which sat on a tripod about 10 feet from the subject. Flash was set to ETTL.

I was in manual mode at 1/250. In order to get anywhere close to a proper exposure, I had to increase ISO to 640, and speed my lens up to f/3.5.

I also had overhead, recessed ceiling lights.

I dont feel like the photos should have come out at dark as they did under the circumstances. Where am I going wrong?

Here is an example... no PP done, only cropping, resizing, and converting to jpg.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/aldwynn/Misc/example.jpg

Any ideas would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[Benji]

ETTL fires a preflash which fools the "big" units. I tried this exact thing yesterday. I finally put the flash on "Multi" and then it fired all of the other units as I wanted it to do.

ben

[TimB]

It looks like your 430 is the only flash that you captured. Try hooking your camera to one of the bees with the cable and test it that way. Then you can play around with Benji's method. I leave my 580 in the bag when playing with my bees.

[Johnny V]

Benji is correct...

Tim is correct....only the 430 flash is being "seen".

The ABs have enough power where you don't need to increase the ISO and open the aperture. Best bet is not to use the 430 at this time and just sync up the ABs via a sync cable to get a better understanding of the mechanics of all this.

[Mark1]

I agree with them. I only see one catchlight, and one shadow.

[fashioneyes]

Agreed with others.

I believe one solution is to put the 430 into Manual mode, which will prevent the ETTL pre-flash from firing. That way the AB's will be triggered by the 430 when it fires for the shot correctly.

[fashioneyes]

Also if you want the overhead, recessed ceiling lights to feature drop the shutter speed down (without changing the f stop or ISO) to capture more ambient light ... ... but do this after sorting out the original triggering problem.

[Aldwyn]

Duh! This all makes perfect sense now!!

That's what I get for not pulling out my lights for almost a year! :)

And had I studied the picture enough, I would have noted that the shadow is from the flash, as there is no angle to it!

Thanks guys! Much obliged!