TP: advice on a Studio Lighting setup

sooten wrote: I have been looking at the Alien Bees for a while. They look like a good product. My first question is how do watt seconds translate to guide numbers? In other words, how does the 400ws Alien Bee compare in light output to the Sony 36/56? I have a Sony 56 that I use wirelessly into an umbrella. It seems to work OK, but sometimes I think I might need a little more power...then again, I might not be managing things properly either. To ask another question, what do you think would be sufficient for shooting individuals up to small groups of 10-12 people? 2 400s, 2 800s? Thanks in advance! Scott

Hey Scott,

I tested the light output on my Sony 56 vs my alien bee b800's. At full power, the bee was 6 stops more light than the Sony --> that's 64 times more light output. A b400 would be 5 stops more light than the Sony. Here is the thread where I posted my test.

The alien bees have a great reputation for reliability and efficiency. Their main drawback, I think, is longer recycle times than the higher end elinchroms, profotos, ....

Some people prefer 400's over 800's --> if you are shooting at larger apertures, the 800's can be too powerful, even at their lowest setting. With a 400, you can open your aperture 1 stop wider.


Matt,
I think you'll be happy with those lights. They are far more useful than hotlights for portraits. I used to shoot with three 500 watt photofloods behind a diffusion panel and it still required ISO 400+ to get 1/60th -1/125th shutter speeds. Do the modelling lamps on those strobes track with the power output of the strobes?


Jay

Hey Thanks Jay for that link, I knew I'd seen that thread somewhere here, but couldn't find it. Thanks for sharing that.

Nigel, thanks for that link! That is going to be GREAT reference for me in the upcoming weeks! Now, off to print...

Gentlemen, my pleasure.

They're selling the same pamphlet on ebay for $6.00 :-).
No copying issues, Elinchrom have it as a free download.

My lighting kit mentioned above is arriving today. I hope to have it setup this weekend and can take some pictures to test it's limit...otherwise it won't be for another week until I can comment on whether it is a good value or not. hopefully it will be. :)

Post deleted. Started separate thread.

Edited by Pirate - 27 October 2009 at 10:16

First, what is the studio set-up to be used for? Is it solely for studio work or is going to be used on location, or both. Each has a separate solution. For studio work, you can get by with less power, but you need higher-quality strobes because the time between exposures is less and you need modeling lights in the strobe heads. Whether you use mono-lights or power pack units is up to you, but make sure that the units have cooling fans (or wait a full 30+ seconds between exposures). As far as I am concerned, a four light system is best - Main (key) light, fill light, background light, and hair light. Most people who use a three light system just eliminate the hair light, which I think is a mistake. Personally, I would use a reflector to replace the fill light because you have lots of different things that you can do with that hair light (personal choice).

Just for definition sake, the main light creates the illusion of a third dimension (depth), but most importantly, it creates the lighting ratio; the fill light (reflector) softens the shadows created by the main light and is the basis for the exposure; the background light provides separation between the background and the subject, besides illuminating the background; the hair light adds further separation and highlights the hair (it can also be used as a kick light when using split light or other more dramatic lighting.

Location lighting requires power. You really can't get by without it. Studios typically have ten or twelve foot white ceilings. Light is bouncing all over the place. Locations with lots a room eat light; it's hard to get enough. My minimum would be 1600WS in 3 or 4 heads for location settings (if you want to photograph a car or something large in a big location, you can easily triple that).

I have used primarily Photogenic Machine lights in my studio, but I have also used Norman Enterprises and Balcar lights as well. They're all great it you own a couple of oil wells. My portrait set-up today uses a lot of PVC pipe and about 14 Vivitar 283 and 285 strobes. That is only because I collected all those strobes (they are workhorses) through the years and didn't really know how many I had until I retired. I use Quantum 1 and 1+ power packs which are also excellent. The system works for me, but I think that if I were starting today I would look at the Alien Bee monolight units. They have good designs and are very adaptable. They also have good modeling lights and allow for moderately fast shooting. Good luck.

(Criticism is welcome)