What am I doing wrong!?

Been trying to work with off camera lighting again since getting my pair of pocket wizards and for the life of me I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Of course, it's all trial and error stuff with getting the exposure right and what not and I'm trying to be patient but it's one failure after another.

This is probably all wrong but I'm shooting in my living room, with hardly any lights on thinking that they will color-cast the photo or something to that effect. So, I'm having to shoot in wide apertures and short shutter speeds which results in blown out photos. If I close the aperture, my shutter speed goes past the 1 second mark and everything continues to go down hill from there.

So, what am I doing wrong? where do I need to start with getting on the right track?

sounds like you might be trying to get accurate exposure inside the camera in a very dimly lit room. Don't think about that for now. Set your lights up, make sure they'll flash when you actuate your camera. Now, set you camera's ISO to 100, set aperture to f/5.6 and the shutter to 1/160. Take a shot with your strobes.

Check back and let us know what happens.

dave

It would help if you post what equipment you're using (mostly what model of flash).

If everything is blown out, you must not be shooting fast enough shutter speed. Why do you have to shoot wide open? Try adjusting to a smaller aperture. Set the aperture you want first, then keep adjusting shutter speed until you get the desired result.

Does your flash have high speed sync? If it does, make sure it's turned on if you're bumping your shutter speed up too high or you'll get your flash out of sync and start seeing the dreaded black bars across the image.

Do your Pocketwizards and Flash support TTL? If not, then you need to make sure that you are shooting in full manual mode on both your flashes and camera. If that is the case try to stay between 1/60 and 1/200 on you shutter and adjust your aperture for the depth of field you want. If you are still under/over exposing, then adjust your ISO and/or flash power accordingly.

If they do support TTL, make sure that it is enabled on both the PWs and your Flash (if it is TTL as well). If your flash does not support TTL, then you will need to be in full manual mode as well.

Hope that is a decent starting point.

Gear used: 50D, 50mm 1.4 lens, PocketWizard Plus II on camera. Canon 580EXII connected to another Plus II via sync cable off camera left at about 45 degrees.

I'm a total newb when it comes to this stuff, BUT I feel like I could make better use of off camera flash techniques outdoors with more ambient light instead of total darkness. I've ordered Syl Arena's book on Canon speedlighting and it will be here on Saturday. hopefully that helps a lot.

Trogdor wrote in post #13000692
Do your Pocketwizards and Flash support TTL? If not, then you need to make sure that you are shooting in full manual mode on both your flashes and camera. If that is the case try to stay between 1/60 and 1/200 on you shutter and adjust your aperture for the depth of field you want. If you are still under/over exposing, then adjust your ISO and/or flash power accordingly.

If they do support TTL, make sure that it is enabled on both the PWs and your Flash (if it is TTL as well). If your flash does not support TTL, then you will need to be in full manual mode as well.

Hope that is a decent starting point.

I was in manual mode on the flash, AV on the camera. I like using manual mode as I think it helps me get in touch with the "How To" aspect instead of setting it on TTL and forgetting it so to speak.

bboehm wrote in post #13000691
It would help if you post what equipment you're using (mostly what model of flash).

If everything is blown out, you must not be shooting fast enough shutter speed. Why do you have to shoot wide open? Try adjusting to a smaller aperture. Set the aperture you want first, then keep adjusting shutter speed until you get the desired result.

Does your flash have high speed sync? If it does, make sure it's turned on if you're bumping your shutter speed up too high or you'll get your flash out of sync and start seeing the dreaded black bars across the image.

This is very poor information. First off they say they are shooting in the living room with most of the lights off so the flash is the main light. Other than max sync speed, the shutter speed has nothing to do with exposure.
When the OP says they close down the aperture but the shutter speed gets too long, this indicates they are shooting in AV mode. Using AV in low light conditions is most certain failure with flash photography. The OP says they have trigger only pocket wizards so High Speed Sync is not possible. They need to follow the advise give previously and get their camera in manual with the settings suggested and totally ignore the quoted message.

bboehm wrote in post #13000691
If everything is blown out, you must not be shooting fast enough shutter speed.

I'll try to be gentle here, but please, if you've never used manual off-camera flash, don't try to give advice on using manual, off-camera flash. Your advice was 100% wrong.

To the OP:
1) Turn the room lights on. They won't affect your shots and there's no point stumbling around in the dark.
2) Manual mode on the camera. Always manual mode. Ignore the camera's meter, it doesn't know what the flash units will do.
3) Start with your shutter at 1/200, a medium aperture like maybe f/5.6 and ISO 200.
4) Start with the flash units at a moderate power setting, like maybe 1/4 power.

You'll notice that with all the settings I just gave you, there's room to adjust either direction. This will give you more options. Now take a few test shots and proceed.

5) There are four ways you can adjust exposure:
a) Aperture
b) ISO
c) Flash power
d) Distance from flash to subject

If your shots are over or underexposed, you'll need to adjust one or more of those four things. Preferably one at a time. Soon, you'll get a feel for how those four factors interact. Changing modifiers can affect exposure too, but that's for another day.

You'll notice shutter speed was not mentioned above. Leave it at 1/200.

Have fun experimenting! And when you have a chance, please read the first chapter of Flash Photography 101 (link in my sig).

Oh, did I mention you need to put the camera in manual mode?

Curtis N wrote in post #13000849
I'll try to be gentle here, but please, if you've never used manual off-camera flash, don't try to give advice on using manual, off-camera flash. Your advice was 100% wrong.

To the OP:
1) Turn the room lights on. They won't affect your shots and there's no point stumbling around in the dark.
2) Manual mode on the camera. Always manual mode. Ignore the camera's meter, it doesn't know what the flash units will do.
3) Start with your shutter at 1/200, a medium aperture like maybe f/5.6 and ISO 200.
4) Start with the flash units at a moderate power setting, like maybe 1/4 power.

You'll notice that with all the settings I just gave you, there's room to adjust either direction. This will give you more options. Now take a few test shots and proceed.

5) There are four ways you can adjust exposure:
a) Aperture
b) ISO
c) Flash power
d) Distance from flash to subject

If your shots are over or underexposed, you'll need to adjust one or more of those four things. Preferably one at a time. Soon, you'll get a feel for how those four factors interact. Changing modifiers can affect exposure too, but that's for another day.

You'll notice shutter speed was not mentioned above. Leave it at 1/200.

Have fun experimenting! And when you have a chance, please read the first chapter of Flash Photography 101 (link in my sig).

Oh, did I mention you need to put the camera in manual mode?

Thanks! That clears up a lot. I'm in Manual mode 99% of the time, but thought I'd switch to AV since I wasn't getting ANYTHING usable in Manual when I started earlier.

Not to be funny, why not let the flash do the TTL work? I've been playing with my 7d's wireless trigger tonight and thus far, I think it has done a remarkable job in TTL and shooting manual on the camera.

My manual setting are almost the exact as above, except I am using ISO 400. Living room lights don't even register.

huntersdad wrote in post #13000879
Not to be funny, why not let the flash do the TTL work? I've been playing with my 7d's wireless trigger tonight and thus far, I think it has done a remarkable job in TTL and shooting manual on the camera.

My manual setting are almost the exact as above, except I am using ISO 400. Living room lights don't even register.

Just trying something different, you know? I know TTL would be sufficient but I really want to learn how to make light work and thought starting in Manual mode on the flash would be the place to start.

huntersdad wrote in post #13000879
Not to be funny, why not let the flash do the TTL work?

Automatic flash exposure, in its various forms, certainly has its place. Just like Av and Tv modes have their place.

But in any decent beginning photography class, the instructor will tell the students to put their cameras in manual mode and go make pictures. This way, the students learn the essentials about exposure and other things like DOF and motion blur.

And usually what happens is that as soon as the students get a grasp of manual mode, they don't want to turn back to P or Av or Tv. Because they have discovered the joy of controlling what the camera does, thereby controlling the outcome.

And so it goes with manual flash. Once you get a grasp of it, you don't want to give control back to the camera. Once you learn to control your light, you avoid TTL except for those situations where it's the only viable option.

Also, another advantage to using manual modes is consistency. If you are using ETTL on the flash or one of the automatic camera modes, the camera is calculating a new exposure every time you take a picture. When you are printing, viewing, or displaying some of these photos together, it becomes obvious that there are differences in the exposure.

There are times when using ETTL and program modes are good. In my opinion, manual is the only sensible way to go in a controlled environment where the variables are consistent.