Studio lighting problem

Hi I bought some bowens studio lighting about six months ago , 4 strobes in total , and have been using my 40d to photo friends and family. It's just a hobby of mine.

I have been pleased with the results I have been getting. I have just bought a 5d mk2 with
24-105 lens and just cannot get a decent picture , I really don't know what I am doing wrong. The exposures seem to be way under exposed and just look dreadful.

My light meter is telling me f8 100 iso 125th the camera is set on manual and the pictures are coming out really dark. If I increase the flash head power and ignore the meter the picture just looks all washed out ,am I missing something here?

Your light meter. Hand held flash meter?

Yes that's right

tongard wrote in post #13651067
Yes that's right

Okay, just checking. There really isnt a reason for your 5DII to perform any different if you have the same settings applied.

Yes, I agree that the 5DII studio flash result should be identical to your previous 40D studio flash results, if shooting at 1/125 shutter speed!

I only thing I can think off is that I have the camera LCD too bright , the pictures took ok on the camera LCD until you put them on the computer then they look not very good

How much are you increasing the power? I'm guessing too much?

Edit:

You can't go by that. Put something white in the image & chimp that towards the right side of the histogram & you should be close to the right exposure.

FWIW I notice all my images are a bit too dim for my liking and usually brighten a little bit in post. I shot with a 5D Mark II and now a 1DS Mark III - same thing.

Also FWIW, I calibrated my monitor and the output is much darker then it came stock. So perhaps thats another reason why I brighten up in post.

Is your monitor calibrated?

Never trust your LCD image for exposure determination, trust your histogram and its portrayal of the range of pixel levels in the photo. got a gray card that you can shoot? It should end up just a little bit left of center when properly exposed.

Maybe I need to turn the brightness down to very low on the LCD sreen

we need pics and exif data, please.

tongard wrote in post #13651128
Maybe I need to turn the brightness down to very low on the LCD sreen

Again, you can't go by the LCD. If you don't understand the histogram, maybe going by the "blinkies" will help: My 1-cent flash "meter" in images 5S & 6S.
Simple 2 Light Portrait Set-up

PhotosGuy wrote in post #13651158
If you don't understand the histogram...

Here is a gray card, and histogram as it should appear...

If your meters says f8 and you put camera on f8 and pictures still come out way dark, either you meter is not working or something wrong with the camera as you say your 40d works fine using same meter and strobes.

Not to complicate what we're trying to do in this thread, but the white doesn't come close to the right edge. Considering that 2048 levels of the info in the image is at the right side, I'd like to see the white farther over.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorial​s/expose-right.shtml