CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

An example would help. But, you might try first adjusting your ISO, maybe forcing a value like ISO-100 or ISO-400 and then working with the flash settings.

What are you trying to accomplish? That is, what are you shooting and does the shutter speed (or slowness) impact the result? Is the subject moving or even a live person / animal that might move?

Say you take the first quoted settings. If you manually program these into the camera, being sure to adjust the ISO down to say ISO-400, you can then take a test image and adjust the flash output and / or the camera to the desired result.

BebuLamar

And your exposure compensation settings? I guess it's on the plus side. As I have guessed you overexpose using ambient light. Why don't you follow my suggestion posted way up.
Now that I know you have the Sony A7 III. I would suggest puttiing the camera on M and auto ISO off. ISO 100, shutter speed 1/160, aperture f/8, 1/4 power setting on your flash and with the softbox on. Try that.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

MrPhotog

Ok, the flash already seems to be synchronized or you would not get any light from the flash at all.

On most cameras 1/30 second exposure time is usually a workable shutter speed for synchronizing in an inside studio. Many cameras synchronize at faster speeds like 1/60, 1/125, or 1/250. These are quite useful when working outside and trying to mix sunlight with light from a flash, and might work on your camera.

Try them. You aren’t paying for film, so there is no cost. If you only see the light from your flash on just 1/2 of your picture, or less, the shutter speed is set too high.

With shutter speeds longer than 1/15 or 1/8 you can get roomlight adding to your exposure. This can change the color balance and contrast a bit, but is a technique to play with after you can dial-in your exposure. If your shutter is open a long time, you might be able to hear it.

All of your light control is going to come from opening or closing the lens aperture. These are the numbers known as f/stops. They may be marked on the lens or you may see them only through the viewfinder.

The sequence is usually something like 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22. The numbers may go higher, or lower. The smallest number allows the most light to enter, the biggest number blocks the most light, so less gets in.

Whatever the number used on your overexposed pictures, you want to use one that is higher.

If you are at the highest number and still are getting overexposed pictures, then your camera is set to be too sensitive. You can change that.

The sensor in many digital cameras can be adjusted from a low number, like 100 to a higher number, like 25,000. These are called ISO numbers and are based on light sensitive films tested by the International Standards Organization many years ago.

Large strobe units such as you have were designed to work with film that was not as sensitive as modern electronic sensors can be. ISO 100 was common for films. Set your camera there to start. You’ll want to change it again ( for more sensitivity/higher ISO number) when you use the camera in roomlight. Some cameras ( like the one in my cell phone) automatically set the sensitivity. You need to turn this to manual and pick a number close to 100.

If the light has adjustable output, set it to 1/4 power or 1/8 power or less. If that is still too bright, move the light back.

If you can’t move the light back far enough you need to use a ‘light modifier’ which blocks some of the light. Two simple light modifications: 1) aim the light at a ceiling or wall and let the light ‘bounce’ off of that surface. 2) drape a white fabric between the light and the subject. A bed sheet works nicely.

In professional practice, using a bed sheet frankly looks tacky, so they make an umbrella frame with a piece of white fabric stretched on it. You can bounce the light off the inside of this photographic umbrella, or direct the light to go through it. Most studio strobe units have some way to mount to these umbrellas.

I toyed with the idea of buying a cheap (dollar store) umbrella and spraying the inside with white spray paint (also from the dollar store). I cut off the handle it fit on my strobe and bounced light as well as a photo umbrella. But the paint coating was stiff and cracked off of the fabric when I tried closing the umbrella—which made a mess.

In my studio I hung a curtain rod and bought cheap, sheer drapery liners. They served as partitions and privacy screens, as well as backgrounds, and (if I moved my lights) light modifiers.

Hope this helps.

Experiment a little more and let us know how it goes.

If you can attach a copy of one of your picture files ( good or bad) people here can give more directed advice.

MrPhotog

Get it off of automatic.

The ISO is way too high. Like a hundred times too high!

Turn it down to 100. Not only will you get your lighting under control but with the lower ISO the image quality improves.

You’ll get better focus/sharper images at f/8 or f/11.

Your camera must sync at 1/160 th, but I’d set it to 1/60 th for now.

With these camera settings try using your flash at 1/8 power. Then vary the power to see if you can nail it.

CO

This advice is exactly correct. The ISO settings of 10000 and 12800 are extremely high. The OP should get an incident light meter that takes flash readings. Also, the camera needs to be in manual mode. Set the light meter to ISO 100 and the shutter speed just a little under the sync speed of the camera - around 1/125 or 1/160 second. Adjust the strobe output until the light meter is showing you an aperture setting f/8. Enter the values that the light meter has given you into the camera's settings.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Sorry, but you seem like someone who doesn't read instructions - post the image numerous people have asked to post - everything we need to see to be able to help you as opposed to guessing what you are doing and giving you bad or useless information.

I hate to recommend this - but it does sound like you really need a flash meter. If you carefully read the instructions you will be able to set your flash up for exactly what you need to do and never get over/under exposed images.

A new Sekonic L-308X-U will set you back about $220, or less if you can find one used.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

It's a monolight... a type of studio strobe. There is no "overkill" about it. It's a standard form of lighting used by millions of photographers over the years. In fact, as monolights and studio strobes go, with only 300WS it's a pretty low powered one at that. I use five similar and slightly more powerful monolights both in studio and on location: two ganged up as a main light, one each for fill light, hair light, or background light, as needed.

These battery-powered monolights tend to be relatively low powered... as are the Neewer with 300WS or the 320WS Norman I use. I think the most powerful battery-powered units I've seen have been 600WS.

Many AC-powered monolights and studio strobes are much more powerful: 800WS, 1000WS even 1500WS and more are relatively common.



A flash meter is very often used with this type of lighting. It makes working with monolights and strobes much easier, since the lighting settings and camera exposure settings are all strictly manual. The meter can be used to set up the individual lights and the ratios between them, as well as the overall exposure of multiple combined lights. I use a Sekonic L358 light meter (which also serves as an incident meter in ambient light... I don't think Sekonic makes this model any more, but their L308 is similar) and have older Minolta Vf and IIIf meters as a backups. These meters all can read out in 1/10 stop increments (some strobes have 1/10 stop increments). I have the Sekonic set to 1/3 stop increments, since that's how I have my cameras set up. My monolights are pretty simple, with just full, 1/2 and 1/4 power settings.

There are a lot of different types of light modifiers available for use with portable studio strobes such as these. They are a bit under-powered for large soft boxes, IMO. Direct lighting can be a bit harsh. So for my portable "location" kit I use convertible umbrellas. Those can either be used reflectively or set up as large diffusers. Umbrellas used reflectively give a nice soft light, but also waste quite a bit. My location kit weighs ~80 lb. in a roller case with all five monolights, light stands, umbrellas, power cords, etc.... but not counting a boom stand and nine foot background, each of which are in separate bags.

Examples below were shot on location some years ago at a miniature donkey show (if you ever have a chance, go to one of those shows... they're a blast!) In this case I used just three of the lights: two ganged up in one 45" umbrella (reflective) and another single monolight in a second umbrella as fill. All three were set to 1/2 power, primarily to speed up the recycling. Several of us were using the lighting gear to take posed shots of the participants. I metered the setup initially, did a few test shots to determine an exposure using a "safe" sync speed of 1/160 worked with ISO 125 and f/8.



Once we established a good exposure, so long as the poses were kept at a similar distance, each photographer who used the setup could simply dial in the same settings on their cameras (or a higher ISO with a smaller f-stop, if they wished). In this case we used a PC sync cord to one of the main lights and an optical trigger on other monolights. A radio triggering system would have been better. Occasionally someone would use a flash nearby and set off our optically triggered strobes and the result was ugly when only the one light went off (the others were still recycling from the accidental exposure), as you can see below:



We had no control over the background in the above shots, so couldn't do anything about the reflective glossy and metallic paint or the shadows caused by the lattice.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

You can have all your settings set correctly but if you are using auto ISO, the camera is metering the low light before the flash and setting a high ISO. If this is the case, take off the auto ISO and shoot manually with settings you will need to determine. Everything about how to set your f-stop will depend on distance and how much you want in focus. To get the light and focus the way you want them, it may require the old zoom method -- get closer or farther back from your subject. You can go with your camera's max on flash shutter speed or go to a much slower setting. The flash is much quicker than whatever shutter speed you set so the exposure will be determined solely by the f-stop setting and distance from the subject, unless you have a lot of ambient light than could also add to the exposure. Since the shutter speed is for the most part irrelevant, (except where there is excessive ambient light) you have a lot of creative choices. If you are shooting flowers for instance you may want the background to go totally black. If you are shooting a wedding, you will want some atmosphere of where the ceremony is being held. When I shoot weddings in a church I would often use only 1/15th of a sec. So that the very dim light in the church would illuminate the interior just enough to make out the arches etc.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Hello! Unless my reading comprehension is completely failing me, all of this advice is not going anywhere. His explanation or data says he has his camera set on an automated mode. He is using a flash with no integration with his exposure management system. He is running 300 watt-second flash at a wide aperture. His ISO setting is extremely high. The came is reading the ambient light and the flas is blasting and overriding everything. Overexposure is an understatement.

All he has to do is set the came on manual mode, reduce the IOS setting to something like 100 or 200 and run a simple series of exposures and all apparatus and run a simple guide number test.

I have no idea what his flas to subject distance is but even if he had a flash meter and set it at ISO 1000+ he is gonna get a reading of something like f/128 or some crazy reading.

The camera is not set up for manual flash operation!

Unless I misread the specifications, the flash unit in the question has no TTL compatibility.

Tom Kitoko

Hello cony25, Welcome, I hope this helps,

I have The Godox AD200 Pro flash. On this unit when the flash is set at 1/128, it gives off the lowest amount of light. When the flash is set at 1/1 it produces the brightest amount of light. One of your comments mentioned “Flash power is from 1/1 to 1/64 the huge flash. I played with the power”.

Here is a good starting point: According to Scott Kelby in a 5-day deal One Light Flash class: Start out with camera settings: shutter speed 1/125, aperture f/5.6, ISO 100 Set flash in manual mode Adjust flash, NOT camera. Indoor Flash ¼ power, outdoors ½ power. Once you get it, your frustration will turn into fun! There is a lot of good information on this forum, hang in there.

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

Whooohoo!! This was a fun exercise in patience, I must say! You persevered and waded through the mud, cony25! Now.... let's see a few images - that's what photography is all about!! Yes, show off that hard earned work!!!