My strobe came

[Manfred M]

T'would appear that some more training is called for. Unfortunately that unit does seem to have
much available, will try some generic types.

That's because there is so little you can do with these lights; set the power level and shoot.

1. Set up your subject;

2. Set up your light with modifier and point it at your subject.

3. Set up your camera (ISO, shutter speed and aperture)

4. Set the studio flash power level and take a shot.

5. Look at your histogram and adjust exposure (via aperture or ISO) based on degree of over or under exposure or change the amount of light output by the flash.

Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have a decent exposure.

Then adjust your lighting (position and angle of the light modifier) as required and do steps 4 and 5 again.

[jcuknz]

The modeling light is purely a work light to help you see as you are setting up the shot and makes zero contribution to the shot.

To me there is a word or two missing here "and should make zero contribution to the shot" Unless for artistic reasons of mixed color temperature. Hence the idea of an innitial black frame exposure to check the modelling lights are not contributing to the exposure.

My other thought is that with film without any meters there was a terrible process of calculation whereas with digital/instant playback/histograms it is so easy to have a go and adjust as needed. In fact I do not bother about how powerful my flash is but simply make trial exposures until I have the result I want when I make my infrequent flash shots.

[chauncey]

I seem to be saying often of late...dah, I never thought of that!
Take the shot and evaluate it>make needed adjustments>take another shot...until ya get it right.

[Manfred M]

I seem to be saying often of late...dah, I never thought of that!
Take the shot and evaluate it>make needed adjustments>take another shot...until ya get it right.

Without a flash meter, you have no other alternatives than trial & error.

Even with a flash meter, there is still a bit of trial & error involved as, just like your built-in meter in your camera, you may not like the exposure it is recommending and will want to tweak it a bit.

Then, of course, you may not like the way the light is falling and you may need to change the distance from the flash to the subject. At that point your trial & error process starts over again.

One other "hint" as you start playing with your new studio flash / umbrella setup. Distance to the subject significantly affects the quality of the light. Get it close to your subject; say up to around 2x the diameter of your umbrella, you will get a nice, soft diffuse light. Move it further away, and your light starts resembling a hard "point" light source. I find in my work; my lights tend to be very close to my subject; sometimes actually in the frame and I have to remove the parts of my light modifier in post.