Help!! How do I use studio lights (hot lights)?

Question

Ok, for Christmas my brother bought me studio lights. They are Contico Smith Victor lights; it came with two main lights and a hair light (both main lights have umbrellas) I put them up at Christmas and snapped a few pics. They seemed to wash the person out. I just need some ideas on how to set them up (different lighting effects). If anyone has any ideas on how to do this or a web site that explains it in depth i'd really appreciate it. I'm using these lights for portrait photography, I was a little bummed because I wanted lights that flash but I still love the gift. So I just need a little direction on the best way to use these (do I use my camera flash at all, I have an extended flash) and is there anyway to convert these to a flash kit by buying an adapter or something like that?
Thank you for your help! I really appreciate it!

Thanks for your help. I was using the auto settings, will those not work with hot lights?
I find it a lot easier to use the auto setting when photographing children (they move so fast) it's all about timing with children. Does anyone have any sugestions for a good inexpensive light meter? Is it possible to just use the auto settings with these lights?

Answer 1

Dont worry Smith Victors are excellent hotlights, especially for portraits, and if you are finding hot lights hard to work with, stobe lights are much harder to use (and you will almost certainly need a handheld incident light meter or simply know how to bracket if you are using a digital slr). So from what I derive the problem you are running into has more to do with your camera settings and the type of light meter you are using rather than your lighting. When you explain to us that your images are washed out what you are saying is that you are overexposing your photos, i.e, letting in too much light into the camera. Do you know what shutter speed you were using? How about your ISO? Did you bracket your images? Was the camera on aperture priority or shutter priority? Does it have a manual setting? If you are unable to answer these question then really what you need to do is get a book on photography basics and once you move on from this book get a book on basic studio lighting. I provided the links below to some good books that are really essential for the type of work you are doing.

Unfortunately you can't use auto mode to shoot your images. You cant trust your cameras meter, which is why people are saying get a handheld incident meter. Once you get your meter though, you will have to put your camera in manual mode and use the aperture and shutter speed settings your camera gives you.

Answer 2

Don't keep throwing good money after bad. Almost daily there are people on here warning others to stay away from cheap studio light set ups. If you start doing the things you mentioned, you are going to have nothiing but a horrid mismatch of color temps and white balance problems as weil as control problems. I suggest you sell everything you have on Ebay or where ever and do things right like you should have the first time. A good start would be the Alien Bees website. They have great studio strobe lights and kits, and the prices are not outreageous, though NOT cheap either. You get what you pay for. steve

Answer 3

What you need now is a exposure meter, to measure the light output and make the necessary adjustments in your camera.
Once you master it will be no more 'washed out' faces.

Answer 4

search Amazon.com for "the photographer's guide to using light"... the only book you'll need