Finally, a good result, thanks to all for your help!!

[kitt2121]

FINALLY!!!!
Enough of that crap I bought off ebay, I went and bought an Alien Bee 400. Just ONE. The shot I posted, still has a shadow cast by my cheapy fill light which is so bright and I cannot back it up anyfurther or it will hit the wall. But who cares, finally, a shot that doesn't have huge shadows or extreme blinding bright spots.

Thanks to all for your help, I think that I am finally catching on.
After I posted my last post about wall colors, we had 3 inches of rain and my basement flooded and got some backdrops wet, but who cares - I love my Alien Bee.

On cloud nine,
Aaron

[Asylum Steve]

Aaron,

I've stressed here many times that one light (as you've found out, one GOOD light) can produce very good shots.

Your results here are encouraging, and it's obvious because you're so pleased with them, but if you're having difficulty controlling your fill light, ditch the light itself and use reflectors as fill.

A large white foamcore or stretched fabric panel makes a really good fill, and will always be less than your key, so you don't have to worry about too much intensity from it.

Give it a try...

BTW, one way to tone down any light when you can't move it back any further is too use what's called a scrim, it's a dark but translucent fabric stretched over a small frame placed in front of the light that allows light to pass through but reduces the brightness reaching the subject. A very handy peice of equipment to have in a studio.

[Photo-John]

Steve knows what he's talking about when it comes to lighting. That's why he's the boss. But he left one thing out. Try bouncing that fill light. Just turn it around and bounce it off the wall. That will seriously cut down the amount of light it's getting to your subject.

[JCPhoto1]

You can get sheets of neutral density gels that you can put over your lights reflector and hold it in place with a rubber band. They are pretty cheap and cut your light output by 2 f stops per sheet. Then you won't have to move your light to reduce their output.

[Asylum Steve]

John, you're right, bouncing a light to use as a fill is certainly an option. The reason I didn't mention it is that the results are very hard to control, especially if it's bounced off a wall.

Basically what you're doing is throwing a very wide angle of brightness at your entire subject. That certainly may work as a key light, but as a fill can be a bit much.

Probably worth a try, though...

[smallfrypics.com]

Aaron,

I've stressed here many times that one light (as you've found out, one GOOD light) can produce very good shots.

Your results here are encouraging, and it's obvious because you're so pleased with them, but if you're having difficulty controlling your fill light, ditch the light itself and use reflectors as fill.

A large white foamcore or stretched fabric panel makes a really good fill, and will always be less than your key, so you don't have to worry about too much intensity from it.

Give it a try...

BTW, one way to tone down any light when you can't move it back any further is too use what's called a scrim, it's a dark but translucent fabric stretched over a small frame placed in front of the light that allows light to pass through but reduces the brightness reaching the subject. A very handy peice of equipment to have in a studio.

Came across this old post, and was wondering.........what type of 1 good light do you recommend. I will be set up out doors in a tent like structure/studio doing individual team shots with a sports back drop.

[Asylum Steve]

Matt,

You say outside, but I'm gonna assume you have access to electricity. Any decent studio flash will be an off camera plug-in type.

If I could only have one light, it would be what's called a monolight. Monolights are powerful, self-contained flash units that plug in seperately and are sync'd to the camera. The better ones have modeling lights and an assortment of other features such as variable power and built in slaves.

You can take a peek at a large assortmant of monolights at (among others) these two web sites:

http://www.calumetphoto.com

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home

Use the site's menus to find studio lighting, then monolights. As you can see, most of the better ones are kind of pricey, but if you look closely enough, you can find some decent ones at reasonable prices.

Another real popular line with members here are the Alien Bees:

http://www.alienbees.com/

Search the Studio Forum archives as well as the equipment reviews on this site to get some good info and advice about these units...

[smallfrypics.com]

Matt,

You say outside, but I'm gonna assume you have access to electricity. Any decent studio flash will be an off camera plug-in type.

If I could only have one light, it would be what's called a monolight. Monolights are powerful, self-contained flash units that plug in seperately and are sync'd to the camera. The better ones have modeling lights and an assortment of other features such as variable power and built in slaves.

You can take a peek at a large assortmant of monolights at (among others) these two web sites:

http://www.calumetphoto.com

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home

Use the site's menus to find studio lighting, then monolights. As you can see, most of the better ones are kind of pricey, but if you look closely enough, you can find some decent ones at reasonable prices.

Another real popular line with members here are the Alien Bees:

http://www.alienbees.com/

Search the Studio Forum archives as well as the equipment reviews on this site to get some good info and advice about these units...

Thank You!!

What power ( I know that's not the right term, but I learning) do you recommend?

[smallfrypics.com]

Matt,

You say outside, but I'm gonna assume you have access to electricity. Any decent studio flash will be an off camera plug-in type.

If I could only have one light, it would be what's called a monolight. Monolights are powerful, self-contained flash units that plug in seperately and are sync'd to the camera. The better ones have modeling lights and an assortment of other features such as variable power and built in slaves.

You can take a peek at a large assortmant of monolights at (among others) these two web sites:

http://www.calumetphoto.com

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home

Use the site's menus to find studio lighting, then monolights. As you can see, most of the better ones are kind of pricey, but if you look closely enough, you can find some decent ones at reasonable prices.

Another real popular line with members here are the Alien Bees:

http://www.alienbees.com/

Search the Studio Forum archives as well as the equipment reviews on this site to get some good info and advice about these units...

Also, the guy at my local camera store told me that the pros like to use 60% sun and 40% flash when doing outdoor photography. Any truth to that?