# Could you please help me with studio lights?



## cusvenus (Oct 16, 2011)

I am a newbie in photography and trying to learn taking photos with umbrella reflectors. When I shoot the subject with two umbrella lights (lights bounced with umbrella refectors - White color with silver reflection inside). I always getting 1/2 picture with good light and the other exact half is completely dark. I tried to take picture both vertical and horizontal both times i got the same result. Am I missing anything?

Equipment Used:

Nikon D7000
Nikon 50mm f1.8
Two 400 W/s lights
While (silver inside) reflector umbrella.

Please shed some light and help me in this. Thanks a lot.


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## philsphoto (Oct 16, 2011)

You need to lower your shutter speed to the camera's flash sync speed.  Likely 1/200 or maybe 1/250.


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## tirediron (Oct 17, 2011)

I think Phil's nailed it.  Remember too, that depending on the type of trigger you are using, it could be lowered even further.  Your camera's sync speed is (IIRC) 1/250, but it could easily be as low as 1/180 with some triggers.  Since you say one half the frame is black, I'm guessing you're using a shutter-speed just about double that which you should be.  Check your EXIF data.


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## Village Idiot (Oct 17, 2011)

Wrong section. Discussion forum is for non technical matters. There's a lighting forum.


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## Destin (Oct 17, 2011)

Village Idiot said:


> Wrong section. Discussion forum is for non technical matters. There's a lighting forum.



I'm sick of people, especially those that are not mods, correcting people on what section they post in. Get off your high freakin horse, answer the question, and let the mods take care of it. I DONT EVEN LOOK at what section a thread is in when I open it. I just read it, and answer it if I've got useful input. Ya'll really need to relax a little bit, its getting absolutely out of hand. The mods will take care of it if they see an issue. 

To the OP, the above answers are correct. Lower your shutter speed.


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## gsgary (Oct 17, 2011)

Destin said:


> Village Idiot said:
> 
> 
> > Wrong section. Discussion forum is for non technical matters. There's a lighting forum.
> ...




I don't answer stupid questions by people who cannot be bothered to read their manual properly


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## Overread (Oct 17, 2011)

*thread moved to lighting subsection*

1) I've said it before and I'll say it again - use the report function not backseat moderating when you see a thread in the wrong place. 

2) Gary watch it with the attitude!


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## Village Idiot (Oct 17, 2011)

Destin said:


> Village Idiot said:
> 
> 
> > Wrong section. Discussion forum is for non technical matters. There's a lighting forum.
> ...



Hi! I'd like to bake a cake. Can you tell me what ingredients I need to buy for this cake?


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## dots (Oct 17, 2011)

An eighth should be plenty.


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## Village Idiot (Oct 17, 2011)

dots said:


> An eighth should be plenty.



Unless they're shooting at a low enough aperture that it allows ambient into the exposure.


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## CCericola (Oct 17, 2011)

Hi Cusvenus,

I had the same problem when I started using strobes in college. (they didn't teach strobe lighting in any of the classes but they had the equipment in the lab to play with)
I was shooting a friend doing dance moves. We usually used the school's mamiya rb67's but I wanted to use my new 35mm Nikon F100.  I set the light so I was shooting at 1/500 at f8. Well I developed the film and BAM half the frames were pitch black. I was so confused. So I took the film to my professor and she knew exactly what was wrong. The cameras we were using could only sync up to 1/250. So off we went to take more pictures.

So chalk it up to experience and take a quick look at the manual to find out the sync speed.


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## cusvenus (Oct 17, 2011)

Thanks a lot for everyone helping me.....I admit I posted in wrong section and I will be careful from here on......

Special Thanks to people who helped me without minding my ignorance.


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## cusvenus (Oct 17, 2011)

By the way I forgot to mention. I am using Pocket Wizard Plus II trigger.


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## tirediron (Oct 17, 2011)

You'll probably only be able to get 1/200 sync w/ PW +2


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## gsgary (Oct 17, 2011)

Overread said:


> *thread moved to lighting subsection*
> 
> 1) I've said it before and I'll say it again - use the report function not backseat moderating when you see a thread in the wrong place.
> 
> 2) Gary watch it with the attitude!



What attitude, they should read the bloody manual before asking basic questions


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## cusvenus (Oct 17, 2011)

Gary - I purchased this item to learn photography and I purchased it as used item with no BLOODY user manual. SORRY next time i will take care.


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## Netskimmer (Oct 17, 2011)

gsgary said:


> Overread said:
> 
> 
> > *thread moved to lighting subsection*
> ...



Reading the manual is always a good idea. Most manuals can be downloaded for free if you don't have one. I would definitely recommend it. 

That being said, the OP was dealing with a lot of variables in an area they were not used to. It would be easy to accidentally surpass the necessary sync-speed even if they did know what it was. Since I don't recall the D7000 manual saying what would happen if you did out-shoot your sync-speed it wouldn't be overly obvious what the problem was. Downloading and reading the manual and google/TPF forum searches could have answered the question but I can see why there was so much confusion on the OP's part.


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## gsgary (Oct 17, 2011)

cusvenus said:


> Gary - I purchased this item to learn photography and I purchased it as used item with no BLOODY user manual. SORRY next time i will take care.



When shooting with studio lights you can go as low 1/30 as long as there is no ambient, i usually shoot at 1/125 but it's not important because your studio flashes act as your shutter speed


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## cusvenus (Oct 17, 2011)

Thanks a lot gary. I understand will try this weekend.


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## gsgary (Oct 18, 2011)

All you need to worry about are F stops, meter for your main light and play about with the power on you other lights but keep the power lower, rim and hair lights can be higher but you want them to be subtle


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