Alien 303 Fl Studio
Leana Eckes
I had a great question this week in the forum and wanted to post it here for everyone to read. What is a good starting Studio Light? Well, it really depends on your budget and how much studio shooting you intend to do, but what I tell most of my students is to try out an Alien Bee, they are well built, inexpensive and get the job done. They are perfect to learn on.
Yes, first of all, if you are shooting in a studio (actual location dedicated to studio photography or your living room/garage or whatever) You will need 2 backdrop stands, a hanger bar, and then any back drops you might want. Most of these can be purchased on Ebay fairly inexpensively, I bought mine from Photoflex for about $200 with a case, but looking back on it, this is wayyyyy too much.
The model numbers, 400, 800, 1600 etc, refer to the overall power of the light. Alien Bees has a policy that if you use your light for a year and send it back to them, they will upgrade it to the next wattage power for like, $35. I have a 1600 and it produces a tremendous amount of light.
If you are tight on a budget, I would recommend just getting one 400 and see how you like it. You will need a light stand for it as well, so you might want to go with a beginner package Beginner Bee as it includes it. If you need more power, you can always upgrade later, or buy a more powerful one and use the 400 as your fill light. I would recommend trying the one before buying two, just to make sure you like it and would use it.
The last thing you will need with this purchase is a light modifier, such as a soft box or umbrella. These will take the small light source of the Alien Bee and diffuse it into a much larger one. I prefer the large
Soft Boxes which I have used on many of my product shoots and productions, but they are expensive. If your budget is tight, just use the umbrella that comes with the kit.
Alien Bees also have power pack units available if you wish to take them onto location,
Alien Bee Power Source which are much more inexpensive than other battery supply sources for other lights, but otherwise you just plug them into the wall outlet in your studio.
PS- Some photographers do not like Alien Bees because of their bright colors and toy like appearance. Functionally however, they are SOLID and can perform with the best of them. They have faster recycling times than many "professional" grade lights. Do not underestimate them.
Hi Scott- Yes they do. There are advantages with both continuous and strobe flash units, it really depends on what you are doing. I actually prefer to shoot in natural light as much as possible, but a strobe flash unit has an incredible amount of power compared with continuous light, they are generally cooler to work in (temperature wise- but there are some new fluorescent continuous lights that are much cooler) also your subjects dont have to squint with strobes. Continuous lights are mandatory on the other hand, if you are shooting video (obviously), and yes they do allow you to see what you are shooting in the light of the shot, but they also eat up electricity, and can get very hot and uncomfortable. Its a matter of preference, but if I am shooting stills, I go with the strobes, if video, I go continuous. ?
Please don't come on here and tell me how stupid I am and all that..I already know..I just need HELP, this is my FIRST time doing this, and I AM a beginner so I really don't need people lashing out at me.
Maybe someone can help me as to what setting to try...
Read the manual. Read how to turn down the power. Turn the power down. Generally the power is marked as 1 (full power), 1/2 (half power), 1/4, etc, but more refined studio flashes have more options and let you get down to decimals of stops. Get the power down how ever the manual tells you to do it.
You can vary brightness by the aperture or flash settings. If you start to see a black band horizontally in a landscape oriented shot, lower your shutter speed. Most cameras are good to 1/160, some up to 1/250.
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Film is a four letter word
I'm not sure as to what you do know?? Do you realize that you can vary the power on these units... and you can turn the f stops down to cut down the amount of light entering the camera.. and lastly the distance from the subject.. Also remember these units even on low power could over expose your images if they were direct (and not modified in by a softbox or umbrella)... You should be using your camera in the manual mode as none of the other modes can help you with you exposure...... I hope this gives you some hints about using your system.
As others have pointed out. Only Aperture matters. You can set what ever shutter speed you want as long as it's not to short to sync. If your ambient light is strong it might influence the outcome. Set your camera to 1/250th which is usually ok. That will minimize that risk. Also set a low ISO.
Please don't come on here and tell me how stupid I am and all that..I already know..I just need HELP, this is my FIRST time doing this, and I AM a beginner so I really don't need people lashing out at me.
When using off camera flash, the best camera mode to use is manual. This mode allows you to decide aperture, iso, and shutter speed. (Shutter speed does not influence the flash exposure, but it does affect the ambient exposure). X-Sync is also a good mode to use, however you are limited to max sync speed in that mode.
But there is a way to take the guesswork out: an incident flash meter. New digital flash meters can be expensive, but I just purchased a Shepherd XE-88 flash meter on ebay for only $21US and it works like a charm.
You set the power level on the flash. Set the camera iso on the meter. Place the meter where the subject will be, point the meter where the camera will be, and trigger the flash. The meter tells you what aperture to set your camera, and will also tell you if the flash power is too strong or too weak for a good exposure. Then, take your photo, and if desired tweak the settings for artistic control. It's fast and easy.
Remember that your shutter speed is pretty meaningless to a flash exposure (all the light is released within even the flash sync of most DSLRs). So if you're photos are white, either close down your aperture, or reduce the power of the strobe (In the studio with B800 I usually use them at 1/16th to 1/4 and f/4 to f/11), my camera's base ISO is 200 so add a stop if you can work at ISO 100.
Alrighty...Thanks guys...I wasn't using auto mode.I was trying, TV,AV and Manual..but I think just kept changing my setting differently and wasn't getting it smack on the one to work together..
I will try it out now and see how it goes...
Cheryl
To re-state: Aperture and Strobe power settings are how you control exposure with studio strobes, shutter speed is largely irrelevant as long as you are within the sync capabilities of camera and strobe (usually 1/160th - 1/250th).
IMPORTANT: usually the true exposure time is the very short length of flash time (often as short as 1/1000th a second or less), not the actual shutter speed, although ambient light can contribute in some circumstances!
Tv and Av are auto (at least semi auto) modes. The camera does not know when a studio light is connected and cannot take it into account for exposure. In Tv mode, the camera thinks the scene is very dark (assuming you are inside). There fore, it will give you the widest aperture possible, virtually guranteeing over exposure.
Inside, Av could work, but would likely cause a very slow shutter speed. This will allow ambient to contribute to the scene, thus causeing both overexposure and mixed color casts. Using Av in rapidly changing lighting conditions (that you want to include) is a viable option, if you know how.
Please try using your lowest available ISO, set your shutter speed at your camera's max sync speed, or a tad slower on some bodies, and aperture at f/5.6. Shutter speed does not affect flash exposure.
I don't agree, I use mine all the time. One of the best photographic days of my life was when I was introduced to the incident meter. I'll never be without one, espcially for setting up light ratios in the studio. Or for shooting with the Lens Baby which doesn't meter on my Nikon body.
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Get the B800, even in a small studio some modifiers can eat up a lot of light. I find that when I'm using 10- and 20-degree honeycomb grids for highlighting small objects, that I could use another stop of light (i.e., from a 400 to an 800).
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