I have five Alien Bees....1600, 2 800's and 2 400's. I do all of my portrait work on location. I love that they are lightweight and don't cost a fortune. If I break one in transit, no big deal.

I use them with Larson softboxes. So a Cadillac softbox with a cheap light. Works for me.

Dan,

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. Your information is very helpful and allowed me to get a better feel for this equipment. I really appreciate the help.

StanSC

Rosemary,

You and Dan have been very helpful with the information on the Alien Bees. Thanks so much. I'm going to call the company to get some more information, but I am leaning toward these units.

Thanks,
StanSC

Rosemary:
I have five Alien Bees....1600, 2 800's and 2 400's. I do all of my portrait work on location. I love that they are lightweight and don't cost a fortune. If I break one in transit, no big deal.

I use them with Larson softboxes. So a Cadillac softbox with a cheap light. Works for me.


I have the similar set up with 4 800's and Larson soff boxes

Aloha All!!

I've been meaning to write an article on my experience, but I have other priorities at the moment...So, here's a brief.

I do probably 50% of my local resident portraits on location, and 100% of my destination (visitor) portraits on location.

I'm a bit of a "light Nut", and like to have my lighting "just so". That means, I want to tell my lights what to do, and not have them give me grief about it! When I go on location I use 2 or 3 lights on light stands, and where I usually go requires a bit of walking throughout the session...and I work alone....

In the studio, of course, I have a range of lights and modifiers, and mostly use a 3x4 soft box on my key, and shoot my fill through a 4x7 white scrim, and hair/ separation lights through small strip domes.

But that's a LOT of stuff to carry around, and add heavy batteries, and I'd need a golf cart at least to lug everything on location.

All through my film years I carried a Nikon 35mm as backup for my Bronica 645, so I had lenses, and it was natural to go with Nikon for my transition to digital (about 6 years ago). My only dissappointment with Nikon digital cameras has been that the ISO is deliberately set by the manufacturer lower than it's rating on the camera. What the camera says is ISO 200 is really ISO 160. And the reason given by the tech I spoke with is, "Because with digital it's better to underexpose than to overexpose, we built in a little 'wiggle room'".

Can you believe that? It's like they don't believe professional photographers know how to make a good exposure!

The really good thing about Nikon digital, I thought, was that they had made a dedicated wireless flash system built into all their digital cameras! The benefit I saw to that immediately was that I could be the only one to set off my flash units when on location at my favorite beach and there's another photographer shooting a wedding in the vicinity and firing my lights! Oooh that's irritating!

So I invested about $900 in one SB 800, and 2 SB 600s. As tested in studio, the 600s will give me f11 at full power and 10 feet, the 800 f16. I put the 800 on a very small Quantum Plus II, and the 600s I feed AA batteries. Since I fire the 600s at half power, they recycle in just a few seconds, and about 6 secs for the 800 on the Quantum.

So, you see, I actually have a good bit of power there, and at only (I'm guessing) 3.5 pounds total, plus the light stands. And indoors where the ambient light is fairly low, the wireless system works beautifully... The problem is outdoors where you have a wide variance in lighting that you want to balance with your flashes on your subjects!

The Nikon wireless, what they call "Creative Lighting System", works well in certain situations, but it totally takes control of the lights out of your hands! When in the wireless mode, the lights and camera are communicating and deciding how much flash output is needed. And, quite frankly, that really pisses me off! You cannot manually adjust the output! It's not allowed in wireless mode!

Again, I have to take umbrage with Nikon for not having enough confidence in professional photographers to allow them to dictate what their lights should do! Not even to mention that using their wireless system forces a delay in the works between the depressing of the shutter and the actual exposure being made. And as a portrait photographer, especially with children, you can't be havin' no damn shutter delays!

I struggled with this for over a year trying to get it to work right in the differing lighting situations I am faced with...and having to make big corrections later in Photoshop. What a pain in the butt! Literally as well as figuratively.

Finally I invested another $750 in 4 Pocket Wizard Plus 2s. Now, these babies are very light with their 2 AAs in 'em, and have added a total of maybe half pound all together for the 4 of 'em.

Finally I am able to set my lights manually for the exposure I want, I am still the only one firing them no matter who else is shooting near by, and there is no more delay because there are no pre-flashes from a stupid lighting system!

So, bottom line is that the Nikon speedlights are good, powerful, lightweight lights. But you need the Pocket Wizards, or something similar to make them reliable when using off camera without wires.

My whole gear bag with 2 cameras and lenses, backup batteries, the Quantum Plus 2, 3 speedlights and 4 pocket Wizards weighs about 20 pounds. Not too bad.

Aloha,
SPC II

GO GET 'em Stan!!! Hey Domi---you did NOT read Stan's post and DON'T tell Marshall!!!

Sorry folks--Inside joke--Domi and Marshall are two great guys who make MY system [yup--the one with the--well, hand truck if not golf cart] work!!!