Alien Bees questions. Which do I need??

[Mishelly00]

I am purchasing three lights from Alien Bees. I am going to be setting up a home studio. I have a Nikon D70, the backdrop stand and many backdrops. I also have a good light meter so I am all set on that also. My question is......I am buying 3 lights. Do I need a light stronger than the Alien Bees B400. I was going to buy 3 B400's but I don't want to be to over powered or under powered. It will be mostly for children and maybe groups up to 4 or 5. Do I need a B800?? Any info would be a great help. Thanks, Michelle;)

[Peter_AUS]

B800's are equivalent to 300 watt stobe lights, the 400's I think from memory are around 150/160 watts more for hair lighting/kickers. Remember you can always get them upgraded to more powerful, bit hardet to go downwards though. I would personally get two B800's and 1 B400 as a kit.

[Mishelly00]

I am so excited this is what I ordered from Alien Bees.....You just can't beat the price for lights and all the extra's.

Shopping Cart Contents (nothing is final until you submit your order)
item# item description unit price u/m qty cost adjust quantity here
B400 AlienBees B400-Alien Green $224.95 ea. 1 $224.95 change qty
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B400 AlienBees B400-Martian Pink $224.95 ea. 1 $224.95 change qty
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B800 AlienBees B800-Alien Green $279.95 ea. 1 $279.95 change qty
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LB11 Boom Arm Attachment with 11-pound Counterweight $89.95 ea. 1 $89.95 change qty
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CF6 Set of 6 Color Gels $21.95 ea. 1 $21.95 change qty
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HG4X Four Honeycomb Grids $99.95 ea. 1 $99.95 change qty
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HSA Hot Shoe Adapter $14.95 ea. 1 $14.95 change qty
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LMBD4 LiteMod Barndoors $48.95 ea. 1 $48.95 change qty
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LS1100 Backlight Stand $24.95 ea. 1 $24.95 change qty
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LS3050 10-foot General Purpose Stand $39.95 ea. 2 $79.90 change qty
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LS3900 13-foot Heavy Duty Stand $69.95 ea. 1 $69.95 change qty
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SB3240 Large Softbox (with LGSR) $109.95 ea. 1 $109.95 change qty
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U48SW 48” Silver/White Umbrella $29.95 ea. 1 $29.95 change qty
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U48TWB 48” Shoot-Thru Umbrella $29.95 ea. 1 $29.95 change qty
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UBR Background Reflector $29.95 ea. 1 $29.95 change qty
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[Peter_AUS]

Got most things covered, I still think you should have gotten 2 x B800 and 1 x B400, but then you can always upgrade one of the B400 to a B800 anyway. Really the difference in price is insignificant with what you have purchased anyway. The B400 you should be using for hair lighting and lighting the background from behind the subject where needed.

[Mishelly00]

Well, I wasn't sure on the power, but I searched tons of forums and there were people using all b400's with beautiful results so I figured I would give it a try. But I wanted to at least get 1 b800. If things don't work out with just one then I will upgrade. I am just so excited that my husband agreed to purchase so many extra's with it. I thought he would be saying no we will get that later but he is the one that kept adding more things on...... So that was cool!! I will let you know how things go. Michelle

[Peter_AUS]

Michelle, it is good to get his support, I certainly don't get that from my wife. My suggestion to you would be to start with one light and get to use that first, then add another light after you can handle the first one. When you get used to handling the two then you can introduce the third one.

You will need to get a light meter as well, when you start to use more than one light to start to work out the balance between the lights to not get over powering of the main light.

I would have purchased the Alien Bees had they been freely available to me here in Australia, but the distance and the expense of postage and returning for warranty puposes just made the purchase unrealisticly too high.

A good book on lighting and posing would be an idea to get or find in the local library too.

[Mishelly00]

I will start out slow, I went to Hallmark Intstitute of Photography in 1998 but due to an illness I have not touched a camera or much of anything for that matter in over 2 years. I learned on a medium format camera doing everthing fully manual with a light meter so I should be good on that. When I graduated I was an excellent photographer but I have forgotten so much. I am not used to the digital world yet and am learning slowly......LOL!!!! I think I am losing my mind. Unfortunetly I sold my medium format camera due to money issues last year. I did keep my sekonic Digi Master light meter (thank god!!) and my bogen tripod. I also have some nice reflectors. Now all I have to do is learn how to use my Nikon D70 with studio lights and how to use the lighting. I think it will come back to me pretty quickly. Hopefully it's like riding bike.LOL!!! I am going to pull out all my notes and school work and read them over. I am glad I saved everything. Talk to you later.,,,,Thanks Again, Michelle

[Sebastian]

The power thing is really a moot point. For a small home studio even the 400s might have more power than you might sometimes want. But once you start throwing large light modifiers into the package, or are shooting through gels or scrims, the extra power will be handy. Pretty much, if the 400s are too weak, sell them and get something better.

I use two 800s and I wish I could turn them down below their minimum at times. And at other times I wish I had the 1600s. Get whatever your budget allows and don't worry about it.