Manual Mode and Strobes

Hi

I have a Nikon D70 and strobes (Sea&Sea D70).

Ok my knowledge level is ..I understand the fundamental of photography (I thinK!), but not much practice bumbling amateur who is keen to learn!

I was advised to use my camera and Strobes in Manual mode.

The question is how do I best set the flash strength and camera apperture, and which do I set first?

I feel I need a kind of flow such as:

Set speed (based on what Im shooting)

Set the apperture based on ambient light meetering

Set strobes to the same fstop

Take shot

or should I set the the strobe strength first and then the apperture (based on a series of test shots)?

I think the basic fundamental question is if I get the light meetering correct before I take the shot, then the best the strobes are going to do is to the 'lighten the shaddows' where as if I need to 'light' the subject then I need to set the strobe strength prior to setting the apperture?

As you can see I'm a bit stcuk on how to set my apperature and flash strength. At the moment I'm using a kind of 'educated guess' and then tweaking the settings to give a pleasing result....but by the time I seem to have got the settings 'right' my subject has swam off!

Any help much appreciated.

By the way I was told I could not use the TTL setting on my rig (as it was not compatible) is this right?

Rgs

Roscoe

Here is my process.

1. Set aperture based on desired DOF.

2. Set shutter speed to adjust for ambient light and desired background color. ( usually -1 to -2 ev from meter for a blue background, or 1/200 for a black background)

3. Set set strobes based on gut feeling / experience. (or since you are just beginning take a wild guess) Distance, aperture, and subject color go into the calculation, but at least IMO it is far quicker to guess and try again if you guess wrong than try to do the math.

4. Take shot

5. Review image and histogram. Adjust foreground exposure via strobe power, adjust background exposure via shutter speed.

Like acroporas says, but find a rock and do all your adjustments before shooting the critter!

Many thanks for the quick replies...sounds like a good workflow !