D100 w/ Studio Lighting

[cpend]

I just got a Britek HS-1000 studio strobe to use with my D100. The D100 manual is very vague on anything other than the speed light. I got the attachment for the hot shoe to PC connection.

My question is are there any tips or experiances with the D100 and studio strobes?? I assume the shutter speed has to be 1/60?? and aperature is set with an incident meter (I don't own one of these yet) ??

I have taken a few shots with it and don't see a means to figure out aperature setting.

Any tips would be appreciated.

Chris

[MJS]

Get yourself a flash meter. You'll be surprised how much of a difference it will make. My students and I have been very happy with the Sekonic L-358. Its a great bang for the buck meter. Second, read your manual and find out what the highest sync speed is tht you can use with the camera. You don't want to go over it, but you can always go under without a problem. As you learn more, you'll see the advantages of not being stuck with one shutter speed and aperture combination. Next, watch and learn from the forum. These guys are much better than I'll ever be,

Good luck and good shooting.
MJS

[FREELANCE2004]

set your shutter at max sync125th probably,let camera pick aperture,adjust light accordingly,bouncing,ceiling ect.this will work until you get a meter,i ues a mikolta iv f .make sure you get a F model,so you can work with flash and strobes.then you will want to work with meter.bracketing frames helps alsoi.problem with camera ttl metering is it goes by what the lense is bouncing off of.bright or dull objects will over and under expose flesh tones.
freelance1031@aol.com

[Irakly Shanidze]

you must be joking. one cannot use any automatic exposure mode with studio strobes. the only way to work without a flash meter is to set the sync speed and manually adjust aperture using camera LCD as a control. Not very handy, not very precise, but usable as the last resort.

set your shutter at max sync125th probably,let camera pick aperture,adjust light accordingly,bouncing,ceiling ect.this will work until you get a meter,i ues a mikolta iv f .make sure you get a F model,so you can work with flash and strobes.then you will want to work with meter.bracketing frames helps alsoi.problem with camera ttl metering is it goes by what the lense is bouncing off of.bright or dull objects will over and under expose flesh tones.
freelance1031@aol.com

[dhle]

I am new with the D100 and studio light too.
I set my D100 in Manual mode, Speed = 1/125, and A=f8 (from my sekonic light meter reading).

Here is a picture of my son I took recently without the light meter (battery ran out). I adjusted the light (with a gut feeling), took the picture, looked at the computer and kept the setting for the next 30 pictures.

The picture was taken with an Alleien Bees light and a light panel. Make sure the object is about 5-6 feet away from the backdrop to avoid shadow.
Hope this helps

I just got a Britek HS-1000 studio strobe to use with my D100. The D100 manual is very vague on anything other than the speed light. I got the attachment for the hot shoe to PC connection.

My question is are there any tips or experiances with the D100 and studio strobes?? I assume the shutter speed has to be 1/60?? and aperature is set with an incident meter (I don't own one of these yet) ??

I have taken a few shots with it and don't see a means to figure out aperature setting.

Any tips would be appreciated.

Chris

[Peter_AUS]

Be careful of the Safe Sync Voltage of the studio stobes and the camera. My Canon 10D has a SSV of 6V and the majority of Studio lights are around 12V-25V average around 15V which can have an adverse effect on a camera if the Voltage is too high. Wein make a Safe Sync Connection that makes the Voltage 6V.

[FREELANCE2004]

no im not joking ,iraki shindawski,i mean its a good place to see what the camera likes,and then set your manuals from there,things can be done in other ways,than just your way.

[shutterman]

I just got a Britek HS-1000 studio strobe to use with my D100. The D100 manual is very vague on anything other than the speed light. I got the attachment for the hot shoe to PC connection.

My question is are there any tips or experiances with the D100 and studio strobes?? I assume the shutter speed has to be 1/60?? and aperature is set with an incident meter (I don't own one of these yet) ??

I have taken a few shots with it and don't see a means to figure out aperature setting.

Any tips would be appreciated.

Chris

I use the D100 in my studio at home ( I use monolights not strobes but same difference) but would be lost without a light meter. There are so many variables you need to know exactly what is happening. The is the beauty part of a studio - you have complete control!

here is one I did last night...

[JCPhoto1]

no im not joking ,iraki shindawski,i mean its a good place to see what the camera likes,and then set your manuals from there,things can be done in other ways,than just your way.

There is no way you can let the camera set the aperture with strobes because the camera can't get a reading that way. If you have digital you could just keep shooting and adjusting your settings but it's a little too time consuming. It would be very hard to set up ratios that way too.

By the way his name is Irakly Shanidze

[Peter_AUS]

Certainly if I was looking for any advice on Studio Lighting, Irakly Shanidze is someone I would listen to very closely. His work and advice is excellent, some of the best I have seen.

Irakly where are you been, you haven't been around for a while now.

[FREELANCE2004]

ive had some good luck in the past,way before i had a meter,i use to set up like this and never had a problem.hey jim .why is it not possible with the strobes?i shot 35mm for years without a meter,and shot shutter priority with low power strobes,and got away with it.ive never done it with my digital.ive just recently started shooting digital.i shoot in manual when in the studio.thanks and god bless.

[FREELANCE2004]

shutterman,this is beautiful work,and a beautiful lil girl.

[JCPhoto1]

ive had some good luck in the past,way before i had a meter,i use to set up like this and never had a problem.hey jim .why is it not possible with the strobes?i shot 35mm for years without a meter,and shot shutter priority with low power strobes,and got away with it.ive never done it with my digital.ive just recently started shooting digital.i shoot in manual when in the studio.thanks and god bless.

Camera's are made with no provision to get get readings from strobes. There is no good reason to or practical way to do it. With your meter you take your reading at the subject facing the lights and or camera. Camera's use reflective readings ( I know they read ambient light) that work well with the type of readings you would need with no flash or the onboard speedlight. They can do TTL or metered readings for the speedlight. Remember that metering started with film long before you could chimp with your lcd and get a histogram reading. On top of all that the lcd method wouldn't work with setting ratio's. You would have to at least transfer the shots to a computer to see if the shot worked. Remember the earlier posts about modeling lights. That's what they are for, to help set up the shot without having to keep taking a picture and seeing how it looks on your computer. You are right about having good luck because that's what you need if you don't use a meter to set your aperture. It's too hit and miss and at the least too time consuming to try and keep guessing to get it right. If you were shooting 35mm film in the past in shutter priority the camera wasn't metering the shot because it can't. You would have to print the shot to see if you got it right. That would be expensive and too uncertain if you were shooting pro. Your customer isn't going to wait to see if you guessed right and then come back if you didn't.

I might not be the best one to explain this concept. I was hoping one of the moderators or Irakly might be able give a clearer or more informed answer.

[JCPhoto1]

[QUOTE=shutterman]I use the D100 in my studio at home ( I use monolights not strobes but same difference) but would be lost without a light meter. There are so many variables you need to know exactly what is happening. The is the beauty part of a studio - you have complete control!

Shutterman you do have a little angel. She's going to be your best model for a long time. Here is a web site that shows a technique that would go nice with that type of high key picture. I don't know how comfortable you are with Photoshop but it's worth a try.

http://www.duckettphoto.com/lessons/pencil/index.htm

[FREELANCE2004]

HEY JIM,
thanks for your time.i hear what your saying,but im still kinda wondering how i did it for so long ,and took hundreds of baseball team shoots, ect with jtl 160 ws strobes,set full power,iso 200,125 shutterspeed priority 28-200 mm lense.i normally would focus on face and then center my shot.im not kidding, i shot a whole lotta shots like this ,and it worked for me every dar n time,sure thing.that was before i bought my first meter.its not supposed to work,but it does.id like to email you a picture for you to look at,from a couple of years ago,if its ok.send me your email,and ill send you a picture

[JCPhoto1]

I promise this is the last time I'll post to this question. I think we set a record number of replies. I think the answer to all this is a choice or preference made by the photographer. I even posted a question to another forum and got a lot of mixed answers too. It seems that there are some who don't feel the need to use a meter in setting up their shots and many who do. What I noticed is the people who don't meter do this using pretty static shots. They setup at a fixed position and take repetitive shots. You could get away without relying on a meter with that type of setup. The ones who seem to need or use their meters more are the studio photographers who change the subjects and or lighting positions. With that and the use of ratio's I still couldn't do without a meter.

To freelance, Please post your picture here. I'm sure we all would like to see some of your work. I do believe you do get the shot with the setup you use but you do understand that your camera isn't metering the strobes. A camera can't do that. Like I said I'm sure your shots work but the camera is metering the scene before the strobes fire. Do you shoot outdoors with a mix of strobes and ambient light. That might be the difference with others like me who shoot indoors with only the modeling lights on for illumination. Just a thought.

[shutterman]

[QUOTE=JCPhoto1]

I use the D100 in my studio at home ( I use monolights not strobes but same difference) but would be lost without a light meter. There are so many variables you need to know exactly what is happening. The is the beauty part of a studio - you have complete control!

Shutterman you do have a little angel. She's going to be your best model for a long time. Here is a web site that shows a technique that would go nice with that type of high key picture. I don't know how comfortable you are with Photoshop but it's worth a try.

http://www.duckettphoto.com/lessons/pencil/index.htm

that is a great FYI!!!! I am definately going to try that out. I've seen images like that before but never really known how to get the effect! Thanks so much!

Wes

[FREELANCE2004]

hey jim,i went back and studied alot of my older shots that i spoke of,and i bet you over 75 % of them are probably a stop or so. off,alot of them were a lil over exposed,but not to the point to which it was noticeable to the untrained eye{always training].they look like they need to work on their tan a little bit,thats all.i spoke to a professor at the college in town,i hang around his studio,abou our subject.he said he hardly ever uses his meter,every once in a while to check himself,he says over expose a bit, and let the lab fix it.he says he preaches to students the importance of it,but out of lazyness most of the time it doesnt get turned on or taken out the box.he said its so repititious hes hardly ever off much.


jim all pictures ive tried to post are to large.ill get some up soon