Help: what's wrong with my lighting?

[amnesiastudios]

I bought a westcot softbox kit that has a 1000 W and a 500 Watt softbox. I set these up in a 20 x 15 room and my camera (Nikon D70) still wants to use the flash and I fluctuate between a shutter speed of 1/30 and 1/60. What's going on?? I then moved it into a smaller room - about 10 x 10 - and got the same problem. Ceilings are 8 feet. How much light do I need to be able to shoot? Should I have got a 3 light kit?

[Asylum Steve]

Welcome to the site. I like your name...

Are these continuous lights? IOW, not flash units in the softboxes? And what is your ISO setting?

If you have your camera in an auto mode, with those hot lights and a low ISO, what you describe is likely to happen. A 1K and 500w together still don't throw off a huge amount of illumination...

If you don't want to add more light, I would try two things. Set the camera ISO to a higher number. Try either 400 or 800. Then use the camera in manual mode (make sure the camera flash is turned off) and meter the light to get your exposure settings.

[MJS]

The following was shot on a Nikon D70 for the upcoming dance program. The key lights were 2 lowel totalights aimed through a 4 x 6 foot photoflex pop out diffusion panel. Metered at 1/30 and f/5.6. The fill was supplied by a 42" silver reflector metered 2 stops lower for a 3:1 ratio. We shot raw and opened up 1 stop in Nikon capture, then converted to B/W in photoshop. Lighting designed by my advanced production class, shot by the Merm, Just shows what is possible with hot lights and a hand held meter.

[Asylum Steve]

Metered at 1/30 and f/5.6. Just shows what is possible with hot lights and a hand held meter.

Real nice shot, Michael. What was the ISO setting?

As well as your pic came out, it demonstrates the point I made in my first post: the lack of illumination of 1K hot lights often forces you to use a slow shutter speed.

Personally, I would never shoot at 1/30th unless I absolutely had to or specifically wanted a slight motion effect.

BTW, your shot also shows that light placement and your subject are almost always more important than the technical aspects of your equipment...

[MJS]

Thanks from the bunch of us involved. The ISO was at 400. We were using the strobes in the studio for group shots and went for the hot lights to get a controlled look for the individual portraits going on at the same time.

[amnesiastudios]

I set the ISO to 400 and its ok. I'm not sure how I feel about having bought these hot lights. This is my 1st experience with lights (always shot b&w and natural light). I don't know how model's will respond because of the heat although strobes are more $ and have to deal with metering, etc. Also, I kinda wish I got umbrella's instead of soft boxes because these are cumbersome. Perhaps this is a good way to start with lighting? What do people think?

[Asylum Steve]

Also, I kinda wish I got umbrella's instead of soft boxes because these are cumbersome. Perhaps this is a good way to start with lighting?

There is no doubt in my mind that it is much better to learn lighting using umbrellas rather than soft boxes. For some odd reason, beginners often think soft boxes give you better lighting or more professional results, maybe because they're more expensive.

Not true...

Umbrellas offer several real advantages over soft boxes. One, the light pattern is much broader. Sure, sometimes this isn't what you want, but in many cases, the more overall and wider illumination you give a scene the better. Umbrellas give a nice wide soft light that can spill onto and help light the bg if you want.

Umbrellas are much less cumbersome than softboxes, and therefore much more easy to set up and move around quickly on the fly during a shoot. It's also much easier to use an umbrella on a boom, especially higher up or even overhead, which many of your more stylish and edgy light setups require.

Finally, umbrellas give a shooter more lighting options than a soft box. You can use both shoot-through and bounce lighting, and use the bounce with white or black or metallic or colored material to affect the quality of the light hitting your subject. Sure, these effects can be done (to a degree) with a softbox, too, but it's a lot easier with an umbrella.

If it helps, think of a softbox as diffused window light, and an umbrella as diffused sunlight. And just as you wouldn't think of shooting ALL your available light shots by windowlight alone, you shouldn't think of shooting ALL your studio shots with a softbox...

[amnesiastudios]

I am thinking continous lights were a mistake. I would need a 3rd light and think that the heat mightbe too much for people (I plan on shooting people from glamour to fashion to stagging scenes for my own creative projects).

Now I am faced with a question: should I get a 3rd hot light or switch to strobes?

I started looking at strobes and am confused and the price is ugly. I spent $700 on these hot lights and it looks like a strobe system will cost much more. Is there any 2 light system people would suggest that is around this price? Any thoughts on how much wattage I need (I realize watt does not = light but maybe there is some advice). And then I have to add a meter, more $$, argh.

Here are some things I saw at Samys (where I bought the other stuff so I would have to exchange for what they have):

http://www.samys.com/product.php?ItemNo=PHOGAKC320K
http://www.samys.com/product.php?ItemNo=HENS7025013 - this is more then I want to spend b/c with tax and meter it would be $1300

They also have a used 2400w 3 head Speedotron system for $1400 but that is way more then want to spend

Super thanks to everyone for their thoughts/advice

Ps: I don't have to buy from Samys as I can just get other stuff from there but it would be nice