So after my initial attempt at shooting the product images I'm working on with strobes, I ended up with 8 very badly underexposed sheets of 4x5 film, and a very, very bad headache. I'm still not sure what went wrong, but after scanning my film in the EXACT OPPOSITE manner I would normally scan it, and alot of playing around in photoshop, I ended up with this. Not so bad, if you ask me. I think maybe my lighting on the left side of the image was a little darker than I'd like, but I hopefully can fix that fairly easily. I may go back tomorrow morning and scan the rest of the images I left out because I didn't think I could get anything from them.
Anyhow, just in case anyone notices anything I may have done wrong when setting up the strobes, here is a little overview of what I did when shooting these.
-I had the battery set at full power (1600 watts) and set at the symmetrical distribution setting, with two lights set up. I'm using a friend's speedatron brown line kit.
-I had one light set up on the left shooting through an umbrella, roughly at a 45 degree angle from the object. I also had the same wattage light set up at the same angle on the right, with a softbox.
-I metered the light with the light meter facing the camera, the light meter on the cord setting (the lightning bolt with the c). The ISO was set for 160, which was the speed film I was using.
-I had the bulb cap on, not the conical cap with the flat meter. Could that be my problem?
-I plugged the cord into the meter, metering the light with the light meter actually touching the objects I photographed. By touching I mean laying flat against them. I made sure the meter read the same throughout the image, since I don't have a digital camera to preview the light.
-I then plugged the cord into the lens (schneider symar 210) and took the picture, the lens set at f16 @ a 15th. Obviously I took out the dark slide.
Any thoughts on what may have gone wrong? Anyone? I know I know a bunch of 4x5 photographers who know how to answer tech questions...
