Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I'm currently using two 800's shooting portraits. The set-up is in about 15x15 room, I'm using one with shoot through umbrella, high on stand "right", 8ft height and at full power, the other with a silver umbrella and at half power, height lower than first "left". There is also two small bare strobes on stands low height beside the sitting person, bouncing off the ceiling. I'm triggering the strobes with a SB 900 shoe flash pointed to the ceiling at TTL -3.0ev. Added to this I'm shooting with fluorescent lighting in the ceiling. The problem is I'm having to shoot at 1/25 f4 iso 200 to get correct exposer. The camera is a Nikon d90 the image on the back viewer looks great though when I upload them they are under exposed NEF file which I have to bring into Camera Raw and adjust all of them. I think with all this amount light my exposure should be higher and also correct at download on PC computer. One other thing, I look at them on a Mac they were better but not good. If possible could you enlighten me on my problem. Your help is greatly appreciated and as you can tell I'm a newbie and can really use the help.
Thank you.
Kelly

Something to keep in mind is that the image on your LCD is the camera software's JPEG interpretation of the image, even though you're shooting in NEF/Raw. JPEG processing does a little color correcting, sharpening, etc. automatically. However, any RAW (Nikon's NEF) file will have those camera software guesses removed again, and the RAW data contains much more information, such as a wider dynamic range, more highlight and shadow info, etc., yet the image will need to be adjusted to bring out these details. The best thing to do would be to make sure you familiarize yourself with post-processing in Camera Raw or Lightroom or Aperture. (Also, make sure you used daylight adjusted fluorescent bulbs to mix more smoothly with studio strobes, and you might consider using a gray card each time you shoot.)

Are you sure your ABs aren't being triggered by the camera pre-flash? Make sure you camera is on manual and that there is no preflash. You should have no trouble getting f11 ISO100 at 1/160.

Whether you use 1/25 or 1/200 exposure time should make no difference in exposure.

Thank you for your reply.
How would I know if I was getting a pre-flash?
I'm shooting manual, Raw, WB Direct Sunlight.
Thank you again.
Kelly

You will need to put your SB-900 into manual mode, it should be selectable from the back panel menu. This means that your bare small strobes, I'm assuming that they are Nikon CLS compatible, will also need to be in manual mode as well.

These guys are right on the money. CLS will always fire pre-flashes. That is how the camera tells the flashes how much output they need. Use Manual all the way around and you will be fine.

I'll try that. What do you think about using a sync cord on the bee's instead of the sb90 shoe to trigger. Will that work better?
Thanks much!
Kelly

I've never used a D90 so I don't know if it has a PC outlet to plug a sync cord into. If it does not you'll need an AS-15 hotshoe/PC cord adapter or equivalent.

The SB900 on manual should do the trick too.

Or one of PCB strobe sync systems would be a good choice.

If you do enough shooting you can learn to interpret the image on the LCD screen. Pretty much the same as what we had to do with Polaroids back in the day.

Good luck.

Your options for triggering:
1: Use the SB900 in manual mode. Typically, dialed down to minimum power and turned toward one of the bees to keep it from adding to the exposure.

(the following examples have the benefit of optionally using the SB900 off camera as a third light, if set to SU-4 mode).

2. Set the cameras built in flash to manual. Again, typically set to minimum.

3. Use a hotshoe adapter (we have one on our hardware page, as well, the Nikon AS-15 will work) and connect the Bees to the adapter via sync cord. Only one cord would be required in most situations

4. Use a remote system. We offer our CyberSync radio remotes, however there are others that will work.

Excellent! Thanks so much I will try all these out.
Thank you.
Kelly