Lights: AB's vs SB's or both?

jung

Greetings,

I am a new photographer and I am looking at getting serious so I would like to start piecing together my photography set up. I was originally thinking about just buying (2) SB 600 & (1) SB 800, for the portability and the cost was not as much, but after further review I am now looking at get the (2) Alien Bees B400 and use my SB 600 for on-site.

Has anyone built a (so called) hybrid setup with Studio lights and SB flashes? If so have did that work together as a complete system?

Another question, can the Alien Bees be triggered by the ebay trigger (RF04)?

Thanks for your time,

troybal

I have 2 Alien B800s, however I am just getting started in photography. But I do know that I started out with B400 and ended up sending it back and upgrading to the B800. I just felt there was not enough light. But again, I am a newbie and It could have just been me. I have the triggers sold by Alien Bee and they work just fine. But also, the B800s can be triggered via a flash. I have tried this and they work, you do not need a trigger. So they work off of another flash.

jung

troybal wrote:

I have 2 Alien B800s, however I am just getting started in photography. But I do know that I started out with B400 and ended up sending it back and upgrading to the B800. I just felt there was not enough light. But again, I am a newbie and It could have just been me. I have the triggers sold by Alien Bee and they work just fine. But also, the B800s can be triggered via a flash. I have tried this and they work, you do not need a trigger. So they work off of another flash.

That is nice to know, I figured they could work as a slave but I figured that the trigger is going to be more accurate (and more money) but it would be good later if more lights were involved.

Have you ever used or do you know anything about the Calumet Genesis (200 or 400 series). From what I have read they seem pretty good.

Shane422

Hybrid lighting setup
My lighting system is way hybrid. Indoors I use a AB400 with a large softbox as the main light, a JTL versalight as fill, an SB600 and an SB28 as hair lights or to light the background. It works really well as long as I can keep the power required from the speedlights somewhere around 1/4 power. This allows them to recycle in under 1 second with fresh batteries. I would live to have three Alienbees for indoors, but I like having the speedlights for other reasons. So I have chosen to spend my money on a mixed system. I do use the Elinchrom Skyport triggers. I have only two recievers. So I set one on the main and one on the background lights. The other lights are fired with optical triggers.

Here is a pic with that setup.


I use only the speedlights for outdoor portraits.

Art Scott

jung wrote:

Greetings,

I am a new photographer and I am looking at getting serious so I would like to start piecing together my photography set up. I was originally thinking about just buying (2) SB 600 & (1) SB 800, for the portability and the cost was not as much, but after further review I am now looking at get the (2) Alien Bees B400 and use my SB 600 for on-site.

Has anyone built a (so called) hybrid setup with Studio lights and SB flashes? If so have did that work together as a complete system?

Another question, can the Alien Bees be triggered by the ebay trigger (RF04)?

Thanks for your time,

I do not use the Alien Bees but I use an older Paul Buff (makes Alien Bees also) White lightnings....I trigger mine with an ebay RF16 (16 channels) so the RF 04 should work.....if I am not mistaken the AB's like the WL's have what looks like a stero sized plug for the sync cord so if so it will work fine....


One thing to remember with lighting if you purchase the highest out put light you can afford it can be turned down......however if you purchase the lowest out put light it cannot be made to increase its power................

If you can afford 2 AB400's.....shoot for 1 AB1600.....as was told to me by a photog that shot for Playboy and also did over 90% of the Rigid and Snap On tool calendars......if you keep all light the exact same model then you never have to worry about which one will be mail, fill or back lighting and also if one dies any of the others can take its place with out any concern of recalculations of exposure if you are in the crunch time of a gig........................

swintonphoto

I, like Art, use the slightly higher end White Lightning lights as well (Only big difference from alien bees is that they come with metal casings instead of plastic). I often use a hybrid. I often use a gentle output with my FL-36 (Olympus attachable flash) to trigger the strobes so it gives me a little more latitude to be creative with the strobes. I can ensure good exposure on the subjects and use creative other lighting.

jung

Another brand that I am looking at is the Calumet Genesis 200, just to get in the game then purchase another one (400) which will be used as my main light source.

The reviews that I have read on them are good but has anyone used them extensively? If so please chime in.