The strobe fired the first time, then it stopped working altogether. I concluded that it was faulty. The cracked protective cap of the strobe increased my suspicion that the light was spoilt.
I brought it down to the office at Bishan. After that, I bought a zoom reflector from the office after the technician showed me how the zoom reflector worked. It can help to zoom the light in on the subject or spread the light out from the subject. I bought the older and cheaper model as it was the type that I always saw on brochures. I bought it mainly to cover the strobe light up when using a reflective umbrella. I feel that the light tube may be too bright or glaring for the naked eyes.
After that, I went down to Cathay Photo at Peninsula to buy my sync terminal adaptor, attachment ring and softbox. It was a good thing I googled for alternatives to Pocket Wizard or Phottix Atlas. These radio transmitters would have cost me anything from $300 to $500. For those who are unaware, radio transmitters are devices to synchronise the camera with the strobes so that they fire or flash as the shutter is pressed. Although the strobes came with the sync (synchronisation) cable, I was horrified to realise that my camera did not have a sync cable slot! It did not occur to me that a DSLR would not have it. I had to get something else to sync my camera with the strobes.
There is an alternative called Infrared Red transmitter. However, that would also cost $50 and is not as effective as the radio transmitters. I did not want to spend a $50 on an IR first, then subsequently spend another $300 on a radio transmitter.
I googled hard on the internet for my problem. In the end, I came across a webpage where someone had exactly the same problem with the same camera. I saw the adaptor being mentioned and called Nikon. Unfortunately, the sales guy asked me to go buy a radio transmitter. But fortunately, I searched for the adaptor on Nikon page and found it. I thought really hard on where could possible sell it and 'Cathay' came to mind. That was how I arrived there. I bought the softbox that I was eyeing all the time together.
I got the lights up and running finally. And I also realised that the problem of the light not firing was actually because of the multi-purpose plug that appeared to have a faulty plug.
Only using the softbox on the camera's left
Only using the reflective umbrella on the camera's right A photo-enthusiast shared with me that a reflective umbrella will allow you to reflect only about 65% of the light back onto the subject.
Using both softbox and umbrella
I bought the backdrop cloth in Malaysia for the short trip I went on. It cost just RM34 (S$13.60) for a 4m x 1.5m.But I quickly realised why studios use paper backdrops most of the time: cloth creases at the slightest shift.
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