Strobist ..Outside im noob

Okay, im very new to the strobist community, and the other day i went out and shot with my 85 1.8 and OCF setup which is a vivitartriggered by catcus v5... but it seems i was unable to shoot at 1.8.. i didnt know this because i shoot a 1.4 wit hmy old 50 inall the time with the OCF! do i need a ND filter? how many stops ? what do i do can anyone explain? my 50L is coming in and i want to do strobist outside and see the flash working... it was washed out with ambient light :/ but i want nice bokeh too lol... explain to thy nub.

Will be almost impossible to shoot wide open outdoors, unless its dark out or you have nd filters. The stops of ND depends on the time of day your shooting

maybe try one of those variable ND filters? i dont have experience with them myself but they seem convenient for what you're talking about

AFAIK, without the ability of high speed sync, you are limited to a maximum shutter speed when using flash. This will make it impossible to shoot at large apertures, unless ambient light is low, or you are using ND filters.

Oh.. thanks! Can you guys recommend any cheap 72mm ND filters that are indeed neutral i kinda blew all of my moneys on the lens. LOL

its impossible to recommend something if you dont know how many stops u need to cut down.

:[what about normal day time, because i have no idea...

Arteel wrote in post #12335456
AFAIK, without the ability of high speed sync, you are limited to a maximum shutter speed when using flash. This will make it impossible to shoot at large apertures, unless ambient light is low, or you are using ND filters.

This...

I deal with this problem a lot. It is nearly impossible to shoot wide open outdoors in the middle of the day.

Here is an example of shooting mid-day.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/fotosbyalex/5​487711678/

Go out during the time of day you want to shoot, set your iso to the lowest and keep raising your aperture until your shutter reaches your sync speed... then do the math, lets say you got f/11 @ 1/125th and you want f/2.8 at 1/125th, that would be 4 stops of light. Your flash power of your flash will also have to be stronger, im not sure if the 285 has that much power or not.

k.CHU wrote in post #12336652
Go out during the time of day you want to shoot, set your iso to the lowest and keep raising your aperture until your shutter reaches your sync speed... then do the math, lets say you got f/11 @ 1/125th and you want f/2.8 at 1/125th, that would be 4 stops of light. Your flash power of your flash will also have to be stronger, im not sure if the 285 has that much power or not.

Ohh. lol well ill be at 1/200th and it barely worked at f/4 on an overcast day.. and hopefully the next shoot i have is later around 6 so even less light.. i hope my vivitar can live up. But if f/4 worked on a overcast day... a 3stop ND filter would do with max power 285. Maybe? lol