Alien Bees - Beginner Bee Package

[george_jonathan]

<p>I'm completely new to studio lighting and I wanted to ask your opinion on the Alien Bee's Beginner package. I'm looking to shoot small families and high school seniors. I'm pretty sure I'll have to buy an additional light and if you guys can recommend any more materials or websites that can help me on educating me on this, that will be greatly appreciated. Also if anybody has had this package, what was your experience with it?<br>

http://www.paulcbuff.com/pkg-beginnerbee.php</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>What camera are you using? Meaning, if you don't have a traditional flash sync port, you'll either need one to put in the hot shoe (to which you would then connect the cable they're providing in that package), or you'd want to consider getting some radio trigger gear. While you're ordering from the Paul Buff, think about skipping that sync cable, and getting instead the CSR+ receiver and the CST trigger/transmitter. You'll find it to be very liberating not to be tethered to the light(s).<br /><br />If you add a second light, you can add another receiver OR simply let it optically slave to the light that does have the receiver. The optical slaving is something the units do as-is, and that's pretty effective in a normal studio setting, once you've got at least one light being triggered by RF from the camera.<br /><br />The single B800 is surprisingly useful, provided you're willing to work with a reflector to help bounce a little light back into the scene to fill shadows. If you're just learning, that's almost a better way to start than with more lights. But it won't be long before you're looking for a key light, a fill light, and a hair/rim light... and depending on the look you're after, one or more backdrop lights, if you need to light that separately. That's all driven by the look you're after. If you're just starting, and want to keep the budget down, you'll just be looking for portraits that work well with fewer (or only one) light source. <br /><br />That's OK, because a single source of light is a very natural look. Think ... the light from a window, for example. A simple reflector can help you to moderate the shadows. This gets a lot trickier when you start dealing with groups of people, or need carefully lit backgrounds.<br /><br />Though Photoflex is a competitor for Buff (and I like some of Photoflex's modifiers, like their panel reflectors, etc), they do have some good tutorial stuff on their web site. Of course the lessons are oriented around showing off their brand of gear, but you can quickly get a good feel for how even very simple rigs can light different scenes. Visit their free lesson content <a href="http://www.photoflex.com/pls"><strong>here</strong></a>.<br /><br />The other thing you'll notice when looking at tutorial videos on YouTube or in places like what I just linked you to ... is the vast array of stand and grip gear that people find themselves using for different scenarios. For a simple one-light setup, you might just need a lightweight stand, a couple of sand bags to keep things stable, and maybe another stand with a reflector and reflector-holding arm if you don't have an assistant to be a meat stand.<br /><br />Recommendations on stands and related items will depend a lot on how you see yourself working. On site, in your own space? That's different than a completely portable over-the-shoulder rig that you expect to use out in a park, or in someone's workspace, etc. So, give some thought to how mobile you expect to be.</p>

[hjoseph7]

<p>You are probably going to need at least 1 more flash unit just to start off, shooting highschool seniors ...</p>

[george_jonathan]

<p>Matt- I have a Nikon D90 with a SB900 flash</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>George: Well, you could get creative, using the SB900 on-camera for a gentle bit of fill, and let use it NOT in iTTL mode, but in manual mode so that it only fires one pulse - and slave the B800 optically to it so they go off at the same time. But any light source from right on the camera - even if it's just for a bit of fill - could produce some red-eye.<br /><br />You can also use the SB900 off-camera in simple SU-4 slave mode so that slaves, optically, to the B800. That SB900 could then provide some hair light, etc. But it will have trouble keeping up with the B800 in terms of power, not overheating in steady use, battery replacement, and the rest. A second B800 is a better idea, once you start getting into things.</p>

[model mayhem gallery]

<p>I agree, a second B800 is actually your stating point. I hated mixing ttl flash with strobes. I tried this with 2 Canon 580 EXII and an AB800. I was sick at the end of the day to find many of my shots came out messed up because the AB800 was firing at the preflash from the 580EXII's and firing again with a not fully charged second flash when the 580 EXII fired again. I finally had to use cybersyncs for my 580EXII's which eleiminate the preflash altogether, However, now I have 4 AB800, 4 AB1600 and 1 WL1600 and a vagabon. So never looked back to TTL flashes again except for on camera stuff which I still do pretty often also.</p>