 Justin G. |
Buying a strobe lighting set. Anyone have the Alien Bee studio lighting equipment. I see the little two strobe set for about $600 and I think this would be in my price range and from what it looks like, it looks like a good deal for a starter who hasn't used lighting before. Has anyone used these and do you recommend them. Also (this is included in the set) would 2 strobes w/ stands & umbrellas be a good starter, or is that overkill or not enough? Also I don't know a lot about flash and strobes and things...how do I get these to fire when I release the shutter. I have a Canon Elan 7E. Would I need to buy some sort of shoe adapter thing or will it come with the right stuff to hook up to my camera? Thanks guy for your continued help. .justin.
|
|
|
|
||
|
BetterPhoto Member |
Justin, I have the alien bee lights and couldn't be happier. I ordered a set of 2 the digibee I think for my main and fill light in my studio. At the time I had continuous lights for my background lights and after struggling with white balance issues due to the mixed lighting, I took the plunge and now have 2 additional ones for my background light. The lights come with a sync cord to hook up to your camara. Then you just set them all to slave and everything flashes when you snap a picture. If you don't want to be conected to your lights, you'll have to buy additional equipment. I have found that the cord is plenty long though. They may even sell a longer one on their website. I haven't ever looked. I have the B800's for my front lights and the B 400's for my back lights. I think that I'd be okay with 400's all around, but wanted to be safe for any need I may ever have. I did buy the octagon softboxes for my front lights and the background shovels for my backlights. The umbrellas worked nicely though until I got the softboxes. I just like the catchlight better from the softboxes. I can't really say if the two lights would be enough without knowing what you are going to use them for, but I think a lot of people only use 2 lights and are able to get great results. I shoot alot on white backdrops and I need the 4 lights to acheive that bright white look. Hope this helps! I think Alien Bees are a great buy. (the only thing with the bees are at low settings i.e. 1/16th of full power), sometimes the exposure varies a little maybe by 1/3 to 2/3 of a stop. It does occasionaly happen, but I can fix it easily enough in my raw converter.) hope this helps amber
|
|
|
|
||
|
Justin G. |
Yeah I basically just want something as a starter set to do some basic portraiture around the house with my wife. I've been wanting to get some kind of intimate poses (clothed, as Ashley wouldn't be comfortable) in the bed, you know with her wrapped up in some sheets or something. Well anyways our bedroom isnt bright at all, there's only 1 small window and it't out of place. And no I'm not going to spend $600 on lights just for one or two shots, I plan on using them over and over, lets say if I do kids or just something. We also have an extra bedroom which I could use as a "mini" studio temporarily as a few friends have asked me to do portraits of them but I said I couldn't at the time due to equipment. There's not enough available light either. We have a very dark apartment. Thank you for all of your help and info. This sounds like something I might consider purchasing! Thanks. .justin.
|
|
|
|
||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
||