So confused

Ok, so I am planning on going to art school in the fall and I love doing photography, but my camera is point-and-shoot not SLR and the lights I use are table lamps :D . I was thinking of getting alien bee lights, but I have no idea what I need, do there kits come with everything? Another thing is the lights always on or do they flash when the picture is being taken. I look this up online and only got more confused...sorry for not knowing this stuff, but I want to be great and I think its best if I start learning now...

Cambece

Alien bees are studio flashes that have a modeling light that are on when you are setting up the shot, then can go off when the studio fires when you take the image and go back on immediately after the flash. I think you can set the modeling light to stay on even when the flash fires as well. Point and shoot really is going to have a bit of a hard time with studio flash sync timeing.

Peter's right. If you have one of the higher end point and shoot camera's that have a hot shoe or a way to attach/sync with the strobes it would work then. If not you can't sync the taking of the shot with the firing of the strobes.

Strobes flash at the same time the shot is taken and continuous lights are like the table lamp your using and are on all the time. You could get a hot light/continuous light setup pretty cheap and be able to take great pictures with the camera you have. Good luck and ask all the questions that come up.

Ohh, well at least you guys knew what you were talking about, i must have asked this 3 times and every place i post it i get stupid responces that make no scence.

Cambece

So Cambece, did you understand what we were talking about, it is important to know that you understood.

yeah i understand, i know my stuff, its just sometimes i get confused and stuff, its easier for me to talk to people than it is for me to read a book...lol

Cambece