High Key Studio Lighting

<p>Hi! I'm setting up a studio in my home I'm new with indoor photography and need help! <br>

I'm trying to set up "high key" studio lighting.<br>

I 've already purchased an Alienbee with a softlighter for my main light..I was told I also need 2 JTL 160's for side lights.<br>

The Question I have is I have a Hot Shoe adapter to plug in the Alien Bee Sync cord. But both of these JTL's are also strobe lights not continuous.<br>

How do I hook up all 3 lights to my camera? Surely I can't have all those cords hanging from my camera while I'm shooting a Toddler?<br>

Would I need a Transmitter/Receiver ? If so Would I need 3? how exactly does that work?<br>

Thanks for any help I can get on this! I'm trying to buy all the the things I need just not exactly sure what to buy.<br>

Also Please Dumm your answers down for me a bit as I'm still very new with indoor photography! Thanks!</p>

<p>Hi Jennifer,</p>

<p>I looked over the specs of your two lights, Alien and JTL: both have slave units. You just need to fire one light and the rest will pop. For wireless lighting, use a hot shoe connector to just one of your lights. No sync cord required. You can buy them for as little as $35. Call B and H in new york: I forgot what you call these units.</p>

<p>Not sure why you'd start out mixing brands. Do they both take the same mounting rings, or are you getting lights that can't swap modifiers. No offense, but if you are-- it's a very bad decision. You are shooting yourself in the foot.</p>

<p>Thanks Chris I appreciate the help!</p>

<p>Nathan no offense taken :) I bought an e-book from a photographer that takes amazing high key photos! and she has learned things thru trial and error these are what she uses and swears by them ..so these are what i was told to buy in the book.<br>

Allthough how to hook them up is not included in the book! lol<br>

I know i sound uneducated in this area but thats because I am :) but I learn super fast~ So hopefully I'll be able to help others soon!</p>

<p>jenn</p>

<p>I agree that one wireless trigger is all you will need. Or one cord to fire one flash and the others will fire in slave. </p>

<p>I also agree that mixing brands may not have been a good idea. 3 alienbees would have gotten you the same results plus the ability to swap modifiers between the 3 of them via speedrings.</p>

<p>Derrick</p>

<p>Jenn, the only thing I don't like about that, is I don't think it's a good set up to learn from. The only reason I can imagine she uses JTL's as background lights (or accent, whatever), is that they are lighter, smaller, cheaper-- and she doesn't need them to do more than one job. She had a set up that she liked and locked herself into it w/ the best equipment for that specific purpose.</p>

<p>However, if you are learning lighitng-- you've lost that flexibility :( They are about $100 cheaper a light, 1 pounder lighter each, and about half the size. But starting out and not having the ability to swap modifiers when you buy them. I'd buy another B400 down the road-- give yourself the chance to discover something not written in the book.</p>

<p>They all have slaves and will fire with just one alien bees in sync to your hotshoe with a cable or a trasmitter, but...<br>

Whatever you do, dont buy the JTL 160 monolights. They have problems with grounding and can be very dangerous. Mine trasmitted 120 volts to the camera and I received an electro shock from it. Other people have similar experiences. Check out the reviews. There are three bad reviews with electrical problems in Adorama.<br>

Buy just AlienBees or change the JTl FOR TOHER BRAND</p>

<p>The photographer you bought the e-book from may be a very good photographer, but if she is recommending a specific lighting setup that involves two different brands of light, it sounds like she doesn't give very good advice. As the other posters have said, three alienbees would give you way more flexibility, and they are better lights than the JTL. If you already had the JTL's, then mixing lighting brands would make sense, but starting out from scratch and buying two different brands doesn't make much sense. <br>

Any book that tells you exactly what to buy and what brand is probably not worth its salt, IMO. A guideline of what modifiers to buy and a discussion of some different brands is a good idea, but to say every photographer that wants to take this kind of photo needs to buy these lights is rather ridiculous.</p>

<p>The OP never said the author said you need those lights. She said the author "swears by them". I have a book where the author loves his Dynalite Jackrabbit for outdoor location work-- but he never says "you have to buy this".</p>

<p>I really assume the author bought those lights b/c she was experienced enough to know exactly what she wanted to lock them into doing, and they are light and small-- and at minimum power, recycle the same speed as the AB she was using (which I'd also guess is what she did).</p>

<p>Thanks to everyone for all of your input! This has been a real eye opener for me!<br>

And yes the Author of the e-book reccomended these lights but never said we had to buy them. I just love her pictures its what im trying to acheive. I'm going to start out with the JTL's for now becdause I had nothing for indoor photography before this week. So after buying my alienbee,softlighter,stands,tile board, seamless paper, reflector and a few more items I'm low on funding to get this finished! But .. I definitely think you guys are right.. and Once I recover from all the original start up costs im going to work on getting a couple more alien bees.<br>

Again Thanks to everyone for commenting I truly appreciate it!<br>

Jenn :)</p>