Too much power

As I don't have a studio yet and shooting most of my portraits and whatnot in a close quarters of my apartment, I ran into a problem of too much light.
I have a 24"x24" softbox mounted on JTL 160 and even when it's dialed all the way down to 1/8 of the power, I have to shoot at f5.6 or even higher f-stop. The softbox is 2-3 feet from a subject.
One of the ways I know is to use an ND filter (or even stack a couple).
When I move the softbox away it becomes harder to control the light and I don't really have that much room. I can probably move it back to 5-6 feet, but then it's still too bright.
Do you guys have any suggestions on what I can do here?

Thanks a bunch,
Aleness

whats the issue with shooting higher fstop?.. esp indoors where background may be irrelevent other than color.. unless you are shooting without a backdrop and want the background blurred

otherwise, you might try going to a fabric store, or using white bed sheets to stack on the front of the softbox.. more diffusion panels = less light

Best way is an ND filter on the lens.

Which ND filters are you referring too. I have a Cokin ND3 for the lens (which is probably not enough).
I've seen some gels are sold for the light, but not the ND filters.
Something like the set here closer to the middle of the page?

I'm with Fureinku. I suppose it's a matter of taste, but I'd prefer to shoot portraits against a plain background at around f/8 or 11.

Paraphrasing from Zack Arias' OneLight DVD:

Sometimes you just have too much light ... you could either put ND filters on your lens or strobe or you could use a lower power speedlight.

xcel730 wrote in post #11375857
Paraphrasing from Zack Arias' OneLight DVD:

Sometimes you just have too much light ... you could either put ND filters on your lens or strobe or you could use a lower power speedlight.

Or, if you have studio strobes and want to use a very low f/number for shallow DoF, then disconnect the sync and shoot with just the modelling bulbs. They're usually plenty bright enough for f/2 or so, and adjustable on most heads.

White balance to tungsten, or custom WB.

Hoppy1 wrote in post #11377289
Or, if you have studio strobes and want to use a very low f/number for shallow DoF, then disconnect the sync and shoot with just the modelling bulbs. They're usually plenty bright enough for f/2 or so, and adjustable on most heads.

Modeling light on JTL 160 isn't adjustable, but I like the idea. It will allow me to shoot at even 1.4 easily.
I'm gonna try that tonight.