Position:Home>Visual Arts> Is this studio lighting kit...?

AlienBee makes a very good product and they earned the great reputation they have!.

It should almost do the basics and it's a little low powered for my taste!. It should work fine under the circumstances, but you may find you want to shoot on location occassionally!. I would spend the extra money and get at least one B800!.

The reason that I say 'almost' do the basics, is that most lighting can be broken down to 3 lights and modifiers, though extremely good shots can be done with two lights!. In fact, if you start off mastering one light, then add another, etc!., you will pretty well have mastered lighting!. However, three is the most flexible and convenient number of lights!.

As others have mentioned, you can use a camera mounted hotshoe flash in conjunction with this kit, but it doesn't have to be mounted on the camera!.

Probably the most important additions to the lights will be various modifiers, like bounces, gobos (go betweens), etc!. A bounce does very nicely as a fill, freeing up a flash to use for something else!. Many items can be used as bounces so it is often possible to improvise instead of buy!. Bounces, gobos, snoots and most of the other strange things photographers use to modify light were all developed from things that photographers put together themselves using whatever they had available!.

A white door propped up is a full length bounce!. Cost!? Just taking it off the hinges and putting it back up!.

A white sheet is a bounce, or a shoot through diffuser!. Cost, stripping the bed and making it back up, or folding it back up and putting it with the linens!. White fabric outer shower curtains, same thing!.

Need a silver bounce!? Car window heat shields are good and aluminum foil has never gone out of style!.

Some 'A' clamps will be really handy - any decent hardware store!.

Some good books on lighting will really help!. I can recommend:

'Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers, Christopher Grey, Amherst Media!.

'The Best of Photographic Lighting - Techniques and Images for Digital Photographers, Bill Hurter, Amherst Media

'Learning to Light - A practical guide to photographic lighting for the amateur', Roger Hicks & Frances Schultz, Amphoto

'Studio Photography - Essential Skills', John Child, Focal Press

'The Lighting Cookbook', Jenni Bidner, Amphoto!.

'The Lighting Cookbook for Fashion and Beauty Photography', Jenni Bidner & Eric Bean, Amphoto!.

The secret to lighting is thinking about what happens to it on the way to the subject, what happens after it hits the subject, and building your lighting up, step by step!. Once you have your lighting setups worked out, it's a matter of simply plugging the right subject into the right lighting!. At least for portraiture!. With slight variations, your lighting will be pretty much the same for every subject and lighting effect you want to use!.

You will need a flash meter!. An inexpensive one that does as good a job as my Gossen, which costs several times more, is the Polaris!. It's even simpler to use than the Gossen!.

The hot lights mentioned are an inexpesive initial alternative, but they have some non-trivial downsides!.

VanceWww@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

I would suggest ONE Alien Bee of a higher wattage to begin with!.!.!.although in your small room it will be overkill, in the future you will find more uses for it!. You can use an on camera strobe as a fill flash and later build up your system!. Get one stand and one umbrella!. The white which can be used as either a bounce or shoot through is best for experimentation!.

Alien Bees are fine products with a great company behind them should you need assistance or repair in the future!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

I agree with the first poster, you should do some research into what kind of lighting and such you will need to turn your room into a studio!.

You probably won't need a whole lot of bells a whistles to start out with!.
My advice, FWIW, start small, buy a few pieces of equipment (http://www!.freestylephoto!.biz/ is a great resource), take some shots and go from there!. You might need nothing more than a couple good bulbs and shading to place where you want it!.
(and, of course, a decent camera:)Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

Alien Bees are some of the best on the market!

I own a few myself, and you can't beat them!.

I would recommend going with the B800s over the 400s!. Most of the time you'll be using the 800s at half power or less, so they'll recycle fast!. When you need the extra power, you'll have it!. If you get the 400s you won't have the choice!. 400s are fine for the backdrop light!. The cost difference between the 400s and the 800s is nominal, so personally I'd get all 800s!.

Get the heavy duty stands too!. For umbrellas the lighter ones are fine, but once you want to use of a softbox (and you will), the weight will be too much for the lighter stands!.

Good Luck!Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

sounds expensive!. I think you need to do more research on what type of lighting you will be needing!. What type of pictures do you think you will be taking!? etc!.
If you are doing hobby photography just shoot outside early in the morning or right before the sun goes out; that is essentially the ideal light photographers try to acheive with artificial lightingWww@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

I use a simple 2 light set up, both lights are "hot" lights!. Complete kit of 2 light stands, 2 lights, $125!.00 Has served me well over the past 4 years! If I want to have a background light I use one of the hot lights and use my strobe as a fill!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

Cheaper here!.

http://www!.freestylephoto!.biz/sc_prod!.ph!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---

Looks very good to me!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---