{"id":6454,"date":"2014-11-10T16:23:08","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T21:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/?p=6454"},"modified":"2014-12-11T16:24:14","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T21:24:14","slug":"alienbees-high-quality-economical-studio-lights-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/?p=6454","title":{"rendered":"AlienBees: High Quality, Economical Studio Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"AlienBees<\/a>

AlienBees Studio Lights<\/p><\/div>\n

For the best combination of quality and price, it is hard to beat AlienBees studio lights. I’ve been using AlienBees in my studio (and on location) for 8 years, and like so many other photographers, I’ve been singing their praises. It would be hard to find the same quality for less money.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There are less expensive lights out there, but at a big drop in quality. There are high end, superb quality studio lights for a lot more money. AlienBees are right at the sweet spot of high quality at a very good price.<\/p>\n

AlienBees are designed, manufactured and sold by Paul C. Buff <\/a>who also makes the much praised White Lightning professional lights, and more recently the high end Einstein lights. All lights are sold directly from the manufacturer. Customer service is superb.<\/p>\n

There are three AlienBees models, the B400 for $224.95, the B800 (twice the output of the B400) for $279.95, and the B1600 (twice the output of the B800) for $359.95. They come in several colors, so I color code mine by power output. You can learn more and buy them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I rarely have the B800 lights more than 10 feet from my subject (usually bounced out of an umbrella). With my camera set to ISO 100 and a lens aperture often set to f\/8 or f\/11, the B800s are rarely set higher than 1\/2 power so they have all the power I need and then some. For a small studio, B400 or B800 lights are all the power most photographers would need.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Alien<\/a>

Alien Bees B800 studio flash set to 3\/8 power.<\/p><\/div>\n

The white power lever on the back of this B800 is set to 3\/8 power. The continuously variable power output can be set anywhere from full power to 1\/32 power. You aren’t limited to a fixed set of positions so you can get exactly the amount of power you want.<\/p>\n

I recommend one of the packages. The Beginner Bee<\/a> package for $372.86 includes one B800 studio light, 10 foot light stand, 51 inch PLM umbrella, a case for the light, and a 15 foot sync cord to go between the light and the camera. One or two of these packages and a large homemade reflector (4′ x 6′ cardboard painted white would work) would get you off to a very nice nice start. I’ve done a lot of portraits with just one or two lights. Add more lights as you need and can afford them.<\/p>\n

AlienBees have a built in optical slave so I trigger them with a shoe mounted flash set to 1\/128 manual power (and pointed away from my subject), but you can fire them with the included sync cord, or a variety of remotes.<\/p>\n

If you are looking to buy your first studio lights, I highly recommend AlienBees.<\/p>\n

If you ever outgrow your AlienBees, you can always move up to the White Lightning or Einstein lights.<\/p>\n

If you aren’t sure if you are ready to use studio lights, you can always rent one or two units and try them out (link below).<\/p>\n

Links<\/strong><\/p>\n

AlienBees studio strobes<\/a> at the\u00c2\u00a0Paul C. Buff web site.<\/p>\n

Beginner Bee AlienBees B800 package<\/a> (B800 studio strobe, light stand, umbrella, and case).<\/p>\n

Rent studio flash units at LensRentals.com<\/a>. You can rent an AlienBees B800 flash for $32 for four days (plus shipping). I would suggest you rent two and use one as your main light source and the other for the fill light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the best combination of quality and price, it is hard to beat AlienBees studio lights. I’ve been using AlienBees in my studio (and on location) for 8 years, and like so many other photographers, I’ve been singing their praises. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6454"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6456,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6454\/revisions\/6456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.jimdoty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}