Continuous lights or strobes?

I am considering having a lighting kit for portraiture. So far, I got

interested in two lines of product: Alien Bees strobes and Lowel

tungsten lights. Both allow us to have multiple lights and a light

diffuser within a 1000 dollar budget. Since my digital SLR could

easily adjust white balance, tungsten has gotten into my choice. But

I am not sure if the tungsten and the strobe make any differences in

light quality.

I would appreciate if anyone could suggest which to select.

 

Thanks,

The color spectrum from the Lowel's is not as clean as the spectra of the strobes, colors might be a little strange. A lot depends on what you want to shoot.

In my opinion, your subjects would appreciate the strobes over the "hot" lights.

 

In addition to the color issue, you will have much more control over your light level balance between the various lights you use in a setup because you have the ability to turn each strobe's power level down individually without moving the location of the light. The Alien Bees (which I use and love) have a continuously adjustable 5-stop turndown.

Go for the strobes. I used hot continuous lights for many years without really realizing how much better things would be with strobes. (I do a few portraits and lots of table top work.) I too, bought Alien Bees almost two years ago and can't imagine going back. One thing I suggest, is that you be sure and get some sort of flash meter. I got a fair one on eBay at a low price and am happy with it.

Thanks Bill VA, Skip and Bill T!

Now it is obvious which way to go.

 

Let me raise another question.

I think I would get (an) Alien Bees B800(s) along with an octagonal softbox. Looks like "Octodome" from Photoflex has good reputation with the previous version reasonably priced. But Alien Bees also has a similar product named "Octabox". Does anyone have experience of using and comparing both these softboxes?