Photographers - Lighting Question
 

Looking to invest in a new set of strobe/flash lights. Box or umbrella.

I knew AlienBees were the hip thing a few years ago. Just wondering if its the same standard go to setup or if there is something new or better or just more standard these days.

Any tips or feedback would be appreciated.

Want to spend over 250 but under 1000

Lemme know Yo!

depends on your output..... i.e. how much you shoot... bees would not handle my work flow, so I use profoto.... novatron are good if you have a slow shoot cycle...

In the past bees have had issue with consistency at low power, and the 1 time I used a bee if fell over and broke. ....

I use umbrellas because I want the specular 'pop' into the skin. plus I want spread into the set, I use photographic white interior on the umbrellas....

a guy using more than 2 lights would probably be better off with soft-boxes for control... something I don't really have issue with using such a small setup...

you can get 1 profoto used for $1000

whatever you take, some known name name or chinese cheap, look to get 500-600 ws heads, if you take something with less power, 200 ws, they will overheat when you do 200 pics set, especially if you shoot faster

I'm looking at Quantuum 600 ws with external battery (check on ebay) to purchase soon, it's pretty cheap, have good reviews and it's possible to work on normal power source and battery, great for outside shooting


look also for used ones, I have ancient Multiblitz around 30 years old, 600 ws can still do 500 flashes without stopping

1 used for 1k. damn. Must be good ;)

Being that I'm not rocking a studio with clients in need... I can probably start a little more lower end. I want quality but I still need to learn the ropes of lighting rigs. I had little experience before with a friend that had a full setup. But never had my own set to experiment with and familiarize with.

noted :thumbsup

For shooting HD video bought these. I was concerned about build quality but I can tell you that they are excellent, bright, and surprisingly lite and portable as well and at $200 each you can't go wrong.


Amazon.com : ePhoto 600 LED Professional Studio Video Light Panel Photography Lighting Sony V Mount by ePhotoinc CN600SD : On Camera Video Lights : Camera & Photo

yeah go with the 500w...the 2, 500w novatrons are good... a touch over a grand I think... you get some stands, umbrellas and a case ...you would need the bee 1600, go there and price out a kit...see what you come up with against the novatrons.... you'll need a pocket wizard transmitter for your camera and receivers for your heads, or at least 1, the other head can run off the flash of the head with the receiver..

Pocketwizard® - Wireless transmitters and receivers

I trigger everything with speedlight on 1/128 :) one thing less to buy. puts a bit more weight in hand, but if you have some small speedlight, not so much

there are plenty of cheap strobes from china on market and many reviews are positive about their work, especially those stronger than 500 ws. two head kits should cost like 500-600$

Not currently dealing in video. No need for constant light right now. however, LED Seems legit.

For strobe lighting, Alien Bees are very inexpensive and provide quite a big bang for the buck if you are on a budget. I shoot sometimes as many as one thousand photos in a single day and literally tens of thousands of images in a month every month almost all of them using off camera lighting and they have been a workhorse for me. I routinely use them anywhere from full power down to 1/16th or so and everything in between and the color temperatures been consistent for me.

I have three B800 series heads with different modifiers. I mostly use the shoot through umbrellas since they are easy to set up and move around and I like the light they throw. The stands that come with the kit are rather lightweight plastic so you either have to handle them gingerly and sandbag them if outdoors in the wind or around anyone clumsy or upgrade to some better stands, but that's not a big deal.

It's not the optimal setup for studio, but personally I've been loving multiple remote speed lights, with umbrellas when applicable. I shoot Nikon, and have them teamed with 4 SB-910s. Not the fastest cycle, but I can pin point, or spread light quite easily, still use TTL monitoring with control directly from my Cam, and can breakdown in minutes to shoot mobile. Studio... I'm all about them Bees.

is BHPhoto the go to online outlet?

Yes, it is.

Shit, I guess they don't stock alienbees...

Yeah, one of the reasons Alien Bees are so cheap is that they only sell direct to my knowledge. They have very good customer service though and if you buy heads, modifiers, stands and accessories like triggers and such together you can custom order your own kit at a discount.

Good to know. Thanks Jim!

I've used AlienBees throughout my photography career. I'm very happy with them. I can see benefits to using more expensive packs but honestly, for how much more it would cost the benefit isn't worth it. What benefits? Basically things like cycle time and color consistency. It's still very usable and most people won't know the difference. If I had tons of money and was rich I would go with something like ProPhoto or ElinChrome. But unless you are bring in 6 figures I would go with AlienBees. Another advantage is you can get a lot more of them and a lot more accessories.

bees will only sell from their site

here's why I use profoto: I shoot a set in 7-8 minutes. I don't want to wait on lights, while gun shoots 1000 images a day I shoot 1500-1800 in 3 hours.... bees will not do that...and I agree ab's are a great budget setup for a low work load.... need to have 5 lights...shoot with 2 , 1 light goes down 4 left, one goes to the shop, 4 left, then a light goes out you have 3 left... 2 to shoot with and a spare :2 cents:

Well I can start off small and learn the ropes before diving deeper. Seems like it's a resounding answer for my needs.

For a good setup would you all recommend having more than 2 lights or is that good enough to start?

dyna lite makes great quality, inexpensive and better yet, portable lighting kits.

Lighting Kits ? Dynalite

2 is quite enough for most of the things, especially if you are going to shoot porn or some sort of commercial photos where you need evenly illuminated scene (you can achieve that even with one light if you have big white wall/ceiling behind you and strong strobe). you can make miracles with only one light, great for artsy stuff and nice shadows. playing with softbox, reflecting umbrella or bare flash, snoot...

thing is that you can always play with other light sources, like reflectors, in order to "help" to those 2 lights, put them on different positions, angles etc.

and you can always get one more in the future if you think that you need one. doesn't matter if is not same brand, power or is used, they are all "compatible" together

when you start to play with more than 2 lights, things start to be tricky, you need to start to use different modifiers, flags and else as light is spilling everywhere if you have just umbrellas

from my point of view, if you are starting with this and just want to learn, best to get something used, strong enough as maybe you'll keep them for long time, as I did. you can always sell them for similar money. just check if flash tube is not old and overused (it's not clear anymore)

can you good lit scene with 2-3 persons with 3 of these?

I've never been slowed down because of cycle time except when shooting full power at f/28 using a battery pack.

you don't shoot as fast as me :2 cents:

great advice :thumbsup