Studio light problems

[Cargodogs]

Hello all,

I've just started exploring portraiture. I've been a bit puzzled by the results. When I take a picture, there's a gray shadow showing at the bottom of the picture, when shot in landscape, and on the right, when shooting portrait (because I turn the camera counter clockwise). I'm just including that last bit to inform you guys, that it's basically always in the same location on the exposure. I've tried using different lenses, but the result remains the same. The only thing I've tried, that has been somewhat successful, is to lower the shutter speed from 1/200 to 1/160. But that shouldn't be necessary, as the flash sync on my 5D MkII, should support 1/200. I've obviously tried turning the lights, and tried all combos of f/stop on the studio lights.

Can anyone shed some light on this, please. It's driving me crazy. Any inputs would be much appreciated.

For reference, I'm attaching two pictures that shows what I mean. For further reference, here are the details about the equipment I've used:

Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon 24-105 IS L-series lens (no filter, but lens hoos attached), Elinchrome D-Lite 4it the supplied soft boxes.

[IMG]www.pbase.com/rjuncker/image/133344620[/IMG]

[IMG]www.pbase.com/rjuncker/image/133344622[/IMG]

[cosmicma]

i have the same issue witha 5d mk1 and some old elinchrom 500 heads it's basicly a sync problem and the only answer is to keep the shutter speed at 160 or below

because the way the shutter works at high speeds flash sync has to be done in a different way rather than just one flash there will be a multiple of flashes from the flash head to make sure the full frame is exposed evenly
you won't see this happening because it happens very quickly
this only happens with compatible flash heads such as the canon 580 ex

i know on a cropped frame sensor i can sync upto 250th of a second with the elinchrom's but i found with the full frame 5d mk1 i was down to 160th max and preferably at 125th the only conclusion i can come to is the longer travel of the sutter to accomadate the full frame sensor

there's probably studio heads out there that will sync at high speed it's something i havn't really looked at

[Cargodogs]

Hi Cosmicma,

Thank you very much for you answer. Obviously, it's not a very satisfying one. I guess the good news is that I'm not doing anything wrong, per say. The bad news in your answer is that it's VERY dissatisfying that I've bought a studio system that, after all the rave reviews in its class, doesn't seem to be up to the job.

Anyway, it clears things up bit, and I guess I can work with 1/125th, but it's not optimal when working with babies/kids, as they move around so much. It won't be a problem for the adults, though.

I'll try Canon and Elinchrom support, to see if they can help me with a better solution.

Thanks again.


Cheers...

[silversnapper1]

Hi Cargodogs,

Just picked up on this one, obviously a bit late. It could just be the fall off of the light.

Have a look at the podcasts from Lastolite on Apple istore. They are free and there is one in there about the use of a Hilite background. This one also goes in to an easy way to correct the problem in Photoshop.

Hope that this helps.

[cosmicma]

i don't think shooting at 1/125th of a second will be too much of an issue here's a small video clip that explains a few things

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is1JM...1&feature=fvwp

it should give you some ideas

[fatboyslim1973]

ive use 1/125th for shooting kids for 10 yrs and havent found it a problem and we know use a canon 5dmkii and broncolor lights and cant shoot higher than 1/160th and know the camera can shoot at higher sync speed but only with a canon speedlite.
hope you have it all sorted now