non-Guba thread: Photog help please!
 

Ok, I have a Nikon D70 and a nice two-light Alien Bees strobe kit. The Nikon has no trouble triggering the strobes, but the timing seems to be off as the picture always comes out black, even with the strobes on full power. Yes, I'm a photog newbie, so any help would be muchly muchly appreciated.

And a little video capture to get this party started:
http://www.ellinude.com/videos/2006-02-19-SelfExam.jpg

I'm going to pretend someone here helped me instead of me finding the info on dpreview.com's forums. http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=17124908

"I have had good luck with using the internal flash and also the SB-600 to trip my 3 strobes.


Set the WB to Flash on the camera. Set the on board flash to manual or the SB-600 to Manual which ever you are using then set the power to the minimum setting - with the power set to the minimum, it will trigger the strobes but will not add to your photo.

when I do this, the camera is set to full manual and sometimes to Aperture control.

I also sometimes use a wein safe synch and a pc cable to trip a strobe and the others fire along with it when they see the flash. Either way will work but the key is to have the flash on your camera set to manual to prevent the pre flashes.
Hope this works for you as well. "

Im proud of you , for most of those kind of questions collect other boards in your favorites. Also Alien bees is very helpful dont be shy to call them.

You also have to make sure your shutter speed is less than the flash sync speed for your camera -- usually a 1/125 second is safe with any camera.

Faster shutter speeds usually causes black bars in studio pics (unless you're using a leaf shutter camera like a Bronica).

Thanks Tony! Here's the result :

http://www.elli-nude.com/CameraPract...actice-283.jpg

Yay!

And yes, the D70 has a max shutter speed of 1/500 which you can fiddle to get around, but I'm happy with that.

You've got the same exact setup I do. tony404 is right..... I've called alienbee a couple times with Nikon questions, and they put me on hold to talk to their Nikon users in the office and came back with an answer.

The problem is using a flash to trip strobes. Don't do it. Buy a wein infrared system or a radio system. Questions? ICQ me.

what are strobes?

This photo really makes me horny. I'm not saying that to patronize you. It gets me going.

time to hit the gym sweetie

nice pic Elli, i love that sexy ass of yours. :winkwink:

watch your shutter speed elli, shouldn't be higher than 1/125th or so for the d100.

It wasn't. I kept it at 1/125 :)

Oh HELL no. She looks fantastic! Yummmmm.

nice picture :Graucho

i'm not shooting anymore, but as far as i remember this should basically work:

f8, 1/125, first curtain sync. and an infrared trigger instead of a camera flash or something like that. the power of the strobes does not matter in the first place

Thank you Donny. :)

Coincidentally, I have been hitting the gym at least twice a week since August for my kickboxing classes. I'm just not a gym rat.

This is what you need:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

The transmitter goes on you camera just like an external flash, the receiver plugs into the back of your alien bees.

You'll set the camera in manual mode at 1/125. Your fstop, well that will depend on a lot of things, of course. A light meter can tell you what to set it on, or you can shoot a sample pic, look at the back of the camera and see how it looks, repeat until you get what you want, etc etc.

The cheaper route, of course, would be to simply purchase a sync cord:

(Several listed here: http://www.alienbees.com/hardware.html ).

But then you'll be limited to the length of the cord. And being attached to a light sucks. The infrared transmitter/receiver is the best way to go.

Using your flash to trigger the strobes will always always always result in inconsistent results.

so i guess the alien bees have no photo cells built in?

They can work as slaves, yes, but shooting with the flash as a trigger will always result in inconsistent lighting.

yeah, but what i meant is:

our strobes have photo cells for infrared triggers already built in and we just needed to buy this infrared device for about $50 - the system you recommended costs $234 and contains also a receiver - which is not necessary when the strobes already have them built in. :)

Boys, boys, no need to fight over little ol' me!

:) :)

The lights came with one 15' sync cord each, but of course my camera has no hot shoe sync plug. I seem to remember the D1X having a direct sync plug in it, but not so the D70. At the moment I'm shooting everything via remote and tripod, so the cord length isn't a problem at all. Maybe I should get the hot shoe sync plug for now, and then upgrade to the radio control later?

nah, no fight :winkwink:

just trying to figure out. i have never seen alien bees, so i don't know what they can do and what not.

I have two of these: http://alienbees.com/b800.html

"The B800 will perform.
The AlienBees B800 is a powerful, self-contained studio flash unit, producing 320 true wattseconds and 800 effective wattseconds of power, with 14,000 lumenseconds of output. The power is independently adjustable over a stepless 5 f-stop range from Full down to 1/32nd of the total power, in whole f-stop increments, and everywhere in between. This flashpower is independently adjusted on the back control panel, with a slide fader that shows marked f-stop increments. Utilizing advanced durability flash capacitors, coupled with axial-flow thermodynamics, the B800 minimizes heat build-up, has increased overall durability, and shorter flash durations.

...

Don?t be bothered with excessive wiring.
The B800 has a built-in slave tripper, disconnected by plugging in the sync cord, to allow wireless firing where the unit will fire whenever it ?sees? a flash from another source. It will automatically dump the excess power, removing the excess charge when the flashpower is adjusted from a higher to a lower setting."

Alien Bees offers the hot shoe adapter for $14.95.

good - then you should ask the alien bee people if their slave thingy also works with this for example.

I was never able to get my flash to trigger my alien bee very well. So we use the sync cord always. (tassy used the cord, tripod, and the self remote for her recent fan signs, btw)

Question (I'm guessing I should just call Alienbee, but since so many of you use them): If we want to add a second Alien bee light, do we need an additional sync cord or something?

Ours was worthless until we ordered that piece. Now, go practice taking pics of SEXY YOU! :winkwink:

thread jacker.

But I don't mind. As long as I get a pink hug next time I see you, it's all good. :)

usually the second flash should be triggered by the first - so no additional cable should be necessary. usually... :upsidedow

ha ha! Well, I'm a little lost Alien bee user, tooooo!

A few more pics of you would get us all back on track.:winkwink:

i second this motion :thumbsup

MORE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elli you are sooooooooooooooo hot!!!

Are you saying you won't give me a pink hug? Don't make me cry, Hal. *sniffle*

Only tears of joy! I've got a boatload of pink hugs just for you!

Ok, that's all good, then :) Woot woot! :)

K, off to the gym, and then back here to take some photos for you horndogs :winkwink:

Alrighty, I promised photos, so here they are! These are the first photos I've managed to take with one strobe going (haven't tried it with both yet). Now I realize my next challenge is to STAY IN FRAME.

No colour balancing or post production has been done on these other than a resize and rotate.

http://www.elli-nude.com/CameraPract...lash/ulthm.htm

http://www.elli-nude.com/CameraPract...stFlash-06.jpg

http://www.elli-nude.com/CameraPract...stFlash-08.jpg

http://www.elli-nude.com/CameraPract...stFlash-10.jpg

http://www.elli-nude.com/CameraPract...stFlash-13.jpg

http://www.elli-nude.com/CameraPract...stFlash-14.jpg

http://www.elli-nude.com/CameraPract...stFlash-25.jpg

Yay! That's the kind of practicing we can ALL enjoy!

cute pics - you'd need someone to help you with that so that you coould concentrate on posing :winkwink:

Right.. well the whole point of this exercise is to be independent. :)

that sounds like there is a long story behind that...

but anyways, i wish you much fun experimenting. although i'm sure it will be hard doing that alone. what a pitty that i'm so far away - i'd have offered my services for free :)

God Dang Elli, you are just a plethora of sexy, womanly curves..love your pics, hun!