First Studio Test..DynaLites What's Wrong?

Ok, I've decided to venture into the world of studio photography (I am confident with natural light only). I really have no clue what I'm doing with the lighting, so I would really appreciate some feedback. Here are 3 shots that I took. I will list the EXIF info below each photo. These are all shown as RAW.

I didn't realize that strobe lights created such graininess?
Also, my Dyna-Lites are 400W each..

On the first two photos, I had one umbrella positioned 45 degrees away, and about 4 feet back. The other monolight was aimed at the backdrop to try and create a "whiter" background.

Do you think I need stronger lights? I would have thought that having one placed so close to my subject would have created ample light? I'm so confused.:o

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are you using a light meter?

I dont think the Grain is comming from your lights... its got to be in your setting, post processing, and or exposure. You should NOT be getting this type of grain/noise shooting at iso 100,200,400,... This looks like it was shot at ISO 1600...

Same question as above.. are you using a light meter?

If in fact it is your lights, wow, id return them so quick. But i doubt it.

Are these hot lights or strobes?

I also advise on getting a Gray card for white balance.

When you say 400 watts, do you mean w/s (watt seconds).. What type of light modifiers are you using? Umbrellas?

Your strobes were triggered and fired early by the Canon ETTL preflesh.

Put the 580 in manual mode and try again.

Lotto has it nailed.

See the shadows on the backdrop right under the horse's head? They indicate much of the light is coming from a small light source right above the lens.

The 580EX, on low manual power and aimed at one of the strobes, will trigger them properly.

None of your posted shots have any light at all from the studio lights in them.

Do yourself a BIG favor and eliminate one source of confusion up front - stop using ANY on-camera flash for now. Connect one of the studio lights to the 20D with a cord and let the second studio light (and others) trigger off the first.

Set the 20D to "M" mode (no other setting will work). Set the shutter speed to 1/125th second (you might be able to use 1/250) and leave it there. With flash sources, the shutter speed will have no bearing on the exposure, but it must be slow enough to have the shutter fully open while the flash units are triggered.

The aperture setting will depend on the amount of light from the studio lights. You would benefit greatly from having and using a handheld light meter that can measure the light from flash sources, but you can "mess around" with different aperture settings and power settings on the lights to come up with suitable exposures.

Though Curtis' recommendation that the 580EX in manual mode can be used to trigger the studio flash units is correct, it is my firm opinion that combining that in the setup at first will do more to confuse you than anything else.

You got some superb lights to learn with, in the Dynalites ! 400w-s is plenty of power. As Skip and Curtis have said, the on-camera flash optically triggering the Dynalites with the pre-flash is resulting in no light from them when the shutter finally opens a fraction of a second later...leading to the poor exposure. The frontal shadowing is clearly showing the on-camera flash is doing all of the exposure, and the lack of any shadow originating from 45 degrees is showing the lack of any light contribution from the Dynalite.

I second Skip's comment about ditching the use of on-board flash to trigger studio lights; at a minimum put the darn thing in Manual at the lowest setting it will go and maybe start to crank up more power in Manual once you want to start using it as a fill light source at camera position.

Nice detective work Lotto.

I saw that statement "I didn't realize that strobe lights created such graininess? " and thought, what is the real story here.

Enjoy! Lon

StealthLude wrote in post #2916410
Are these hot lights or strobes?




I also advise on getting a Gray card for white balance.


When you say 400 watts, do you mean w/s (watt seconds).. What type of light modifiers are you using? Umbrellas?

I'm using umbrellas (to bounce, not through) I have the 400 W/S Monolights..strobes.
I have never used a gray card.. good idea. Thanks

Do yourself a BIG favor and eliminate one source of confusion up front - stop using ANY on-camera flash for now. Connect one of the studio lights to the 20D with a cord and let the second studio light (and others) trigger off the first.

I did try connecting my 20d to one of the lights after posting last night, and VOILA! WHat a huge difference! Thank you for your suggestions.. and I will try putting my EX in manual mode. GEEZ.. I thought I was going crazy there for a minute. Now I will have to play with the power settings, and manual mode. thanks!!!

Wilt wrote in post #2917700
You got some superb lights to learn with, in the Dynalites ! 400w-s is plenty of power. As Skip and Curtis have said, the on-camera flash optically triggering the Dynalites with the pre-flash is resulting in no light from them when the shutter finally opens a fraction of a second later...leading to the poor exposure. The frontal shadowing is clearly showing the on-camera flash is doing all of the exposure, and the lack of any shadow originating from 45 degrees is showing the lack of any light contribution from the Dynalite.

I second Skip's comment about ditching the use of on-board flash to trigger studio lights; at a minimum put the darn thing in Manual at the lowest setting it will go and maybe start to crank up more power in Manual once you want to start using it as a fill light source at camera position.

Thanks for the info and suggestions.. I will post some new and revised shots soon