So, being new to photography, I'm catching on at somewhat of a good speed I think. My MAJOR problem is lighting and figureing out what shutter speeds, F stops and ISO to use in different settings. I worked with about 4 experienced photogs and from jump, they just spit out settings and make a couple minor adjustments and BAM, they off and shooting. Now, ME! lol Man, I'm up and down for about 30 mins before I figure it out.  
 Is there some sort of chart or wheel that I can get somewhere to give me some sort of an idea as to what settings to at least start at?
 

I see theres hardly nooooooooo activity on this post at all hahahaha.

I don't know I've never really had too much of a problem in the studio lighting wise, I may not be a expert but I can usually get the lighting within the ballpark by guessing and within a couple of test shots it is then just a matter of tweaking the lighting. But then again I've shot with very old manual cameras in the past using the sunny 16 rule.

Just remember one stop is one stop, whether you are going one stop slower shutter speed or one stop higher f/stop (larger number smaller aperture) you are still just closing down one stop.

The only difference is that a slower shutter speed will allow for some ambient light. As the flash is really short duration it is effectively provided the light and stopping the action, slowing down your shutter speed simply allows the room light to fill the image a little more.

One must also remember that the strength of the light falls off with the inverse square of the distance from the source, (well unless it is a focusing light, not all that common BTW). In other words double the distance of the light to subject and you don't 1/2 the light, you actually cut by exponentially(?) more, sorry, you will have to plug into the formula to get the exact amount, I'm too old to do that sort of math in my head.

Just take a test shot, too dark, try adjusting one setting only, say open up your aperture a couple of stops, if you start trying to fool with all your settings and your strobes' output you might quickly drive yourself to drink.

Just remember to keep a eye on you camera's sync speed and play within those limits. As you get better then you can tweak stuff such as making the background darker or lighter using your shutter speed.

Ideally you should have a flash meter, but that would make things way too easy. In a pinch you can simply use your camera's histogram, but that isn't the most accurate way to judge lighting, although it is the cheapest and most commonly available.

Thanks fo the reply. the experienced guys I work with can come in, look at the lighting and spit out settings. I'm now able to say, hay I would use this setting in this situation and now I'm getting it right more so than wrong, so I'm coming along.

So what is this 16 rule you speak of?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_16_rule

One way to "cheat", or use your very camera if you do not have a light meter, is to (DSL cameras of course) is to "test" a shoot in auto, look at setting camera used and then make your adjustment in manual or aperture keep the same setting for subsequent shots.

VzMaLa

great!! thanks alot, I appreciate the input and IT WORKS lol so far anyway

Buy a light meter.
It works almost every time.

I use 1 of 2 iso settings in the studio, either 25 or 50. I do all my adjusting in the lighting itself. I tend to try to keep a 1 to 3 stop ratio between my subject and background... So that means if I have the subject lit at f11 (for a sharp portrait) the backdrop lights will be set to about an f4 to f8 depending on how much of a difference I want between the subject and the background.

To really blow out any background the process is reversed.. if your subject is lit at say f8, try f11 or f16 for the background.

This is pretty simplified but should give you a starting point to be able to learn how to control the light, and give you even more range in your images. Play around with your ratios and see what effects you like best.

You can do this with multiple flashes as well.

thanks for the comments everybody. My lighting problem is getting better and I'm doing alot of reading to understand why I get what I get when I do shoot.

My next big project is to teach myself photoshop. but keep the comments coming.

thanks

A light meter....a light meter...a light meter and bracket your shots. Never rely on your in camera metering system. Expose for the highlites and process for the shadows. Better to be slightly under than over. And shoot in RAW format. I say again SHOOT IN RAW. Amazing what you can recover with RAW.

I use my camera's internal meter.
I checked it against my Sekonic and it's spot-on.
I shoot JPEG all the time.
It's the fastest way to stop making mistakes and relying on the computer to fix bad shots.
Learn the artistic end and bracket your shots if you're not sure.

Bill P.

well, most types of dslr's have a light meter in your viewfinder display. its not dead on, but if you get the bars closer to the cetner of the meter your exposures will come out better. as far as the aperture, thats a matter of creative freedom, theeres really not any set formula for an outstanding photo tho. best way i can put it: bigger aperture number the smaller the lens opening to the sensor, less ligt to expose image, but greater depth of field. Try and keep your ISO as low as possible to reduce on noise in the final product, assuming its possible givin lighting situations...