Shooting under fluorescent lights

I just got my simple lighting setup going and have a question. I searched around the site but didn't find anything relating to my specific
question. I have a 30D with a Sunpak 383 shooting into a white 12" umbrella. I have fluorescent lighting in the basement and my question is
do I have to do anything special for the ambient light other than white balance. I'm going to try and point the flashes sensor at the
subject and swivel the head to shoot into the umbrella and try the different auto settings on the flash. I'll set the camera for 250 and
start with the aperature settings suggested on the back of the flash unit. Will I have to adjust my exposure for the fluorescent lights?

thanks,
Mike

If you are using flash which is balanced for daylight and your fluoresent bulbs are not daylight ballanced 5200- 5500K I'd turn off the fluorescent lights to reduce the risk of a green color cast.

Even though I will use a white balance card in one of the shots and adjust in ACR?

Set your shutter speed at 1/250 and the ambient light will be a non-issue, assuming you're using the flash/umbrella at typical portrait distance, with an aperture setting that uses most of its power. A quick experiment will prove this out. Once you have your aperture set for proper exposure with the flash, take a shot without flash. It will be basically black.

I would suggest setting the flash power manually and use trial and error to set the aperture for proper exposure. This will take some time, but give you more consistent results than auto flash. It's difficult to keep the flash unit's sensor properly aimed at your subject when it's used off-camera.

Yeah, I set the umbrella at 4 feet and shutter speed at 250. I tried the manual settings and found that it worked best at 1/2 to 1/4 power. I didn't have much time to experiment in manual though because my 2 year old daughter will only sit still for a minute or so! Actually I didn't even think about the auto settings and swiveling the head until I read one of your sticky posts. Thanks for the help!!

Yeah, you gotta get things set before you bring in the toddler. Take a big piece of white posterboard, roll it into a cylinder and set it up where your subject will be. Use this as your target and adjust the aperture just to the point where you get "blinkies" on your LCD.

It's a good idea to use the flash at 1/2 or 1/4 power. The Sunpak recycles pretty slow at full power and when you're shooting a toddler this will handcuff you.

Thanks, I'll try that. I did notice that the recycle times are much faster in manual, almost instantaneous with fresh NiMh batteries. So if I shoot until I get the highlight warnings this will expose my subject just about right?

gtrplayer5150 wrote in post #3608678
if I shoot until I get the highlight warnings this will expose my subject just about right?

This is something you'll need to experiment with a little. It depends somewhat on your camera's contrast setting.

With my 20D and standard parameter 1 settings, if I open up just enough to get some blinkies on white stuff but no further, it comes out about right.

This is definitely an unscientific approach. It will get you close enough if you're shooting RAW. If you're shooting JPEG then I think you better have a flash meter.