Not directly Photoshop related I am afraid, but I don'r subscribe to any photography forums, and there are going to be a few photographers on this forum.
I have a pair of Bowens Gemeni 500 which I rarely use nowadays, but I blew the dust off to take some realestate pictures today. I was expecting to achieve total white-out with 1/4 power, but they were dramatically under performing. I was using a Canon 5DS at ISO400 F5.6 and 1/125th and slower, and with both strobes on full power. That should have melted the ceiling! I was trigering the strobes via a speedlite.
I later tried them again when I got home, and also with a Canon 1DC using identical settings. While the 1DC initially gave the same poor results, after a dozen shots or so I suddenly got the expected white-out, and the 5DS was doing the same.
So it had to be the strobes, but they were making the usualy POP when firing, and looked bright enough (I had spots before my eyes after testing them). Has anyone heard of strobes needing to cycle a few times to regain full power after a few years of disuse? I tried to Google an answer but found nothing.
Thankfully there's no panic now and I can get my pictures done, but I'm interested to know what was going on with the lights. Also, any thoughts on what shutter speed I can get away with? I doubt they will sync properly at the 1/250th that speedlites are OK at.
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