Today is my birthday and I decided to buy myself a gift

Suburbanmom

<font color=red>Oh, SNAP!<br><font color=peach>I'm
Joined
Jul 7, 2007
Messages
1,328
I bought an Alien Bee. Just one (the 800 in alien green), but I also bought the large softbox and the carrying case. I've been going back and forth for months about buying some portrait lights and I finally did it! I thought about getting the beginner bee package, but in the end, I decided I'd rather have a softbox than an umbrella, and I already have a light stand that I can use.

SO...wish me luck. I've been dabbling in portraits. Here are some I took recently using window light and my reflector.

My 12yo
Kevin_0018_5x7.jpg


My niece
Emma_0048_8x10.jpg


My sister with both her kids
Rudds_0110.jpg


and my nephew
Liam_0121.jpg


So, I'll take any advice from anyone who has any tips about portrait lighting. I'm completely new at this but am really really excited.
 
I love your pics!!! great job,
I don't know anything about portrait lighting, but you did a great job with those pics!
 
These look great! Where did you place the light and reflector? Did you use your on camera flash at all?
 
Happy Birthday!!!!!:yay:


What a great gift to yourself. You will love your AB800 - I have two of them as well as two 400's and I LOVE THEM.

Just one thing that may come as a shock to you - those softboxes (I have the large not the extra large) are HUGE and HEAVY - especially on a stand with the actual light. Make sure you have a heavy duty stand that can easily handle the weight without tipping over.

I purposely bought their heavy-duty stand for the AB800 with the large softbox. I am able to use my old cheapie hot light stands for everything else - but I can't imagine that light with that softbox on one of the smaller less sturdy stands.

Maybe yours is a better quality than mine - just don't be suprised when you get it if you need to go back and order the stand as well.

:goodvibes I am so excited for you. I can't wait to see what you get and how you like your AB when it comes. Keep us posted.
 

These look great! Where did you place the light and reflector? Did you use your on camera flash at all?

Thank you!! I didn't use my camera flash. I have a large window and it was a very bright day, so I positioned the background at a 45º angle from the window (it's on the left side of the camera). About 45º on the right side, I hung my reflector on a light stand and had it about 3 feet away from the subject. I tried to keep my ISO as low as possible (200-400) and my f-stop around 5.6/f. The shutter speed was slower (30-60?), so I do have some blurry shots because it's hard to keep everyone from moving :banana: .
 
Very NICE! DH bought me the Digi Bee Package with 1 B800 and 1 B400 and a softbox for Christmas but I havent set it up yet! I'd love to see how your setup looks when you get around to it!



I bought an Alien Bee. Just one (the 800 in alien green), but I also bought the large softbox and the carrying case. I've been going back and forth for months about buying some portrait lights and I finally did it! I thought about getting the beginner bee package, but in the end, I decided I'd rather have a softbox than an umbrella, and I already have a light stand that I can use.

SO...wish me luck. I've been dabbling in portraits. Here are some I took recently using window light and my reflector.

My 12yo
Kevin_0018_5x7.jpg


My niece
Emma_0048_8x10.jpg


My sister with both her kids
Rudds_0110.jpg


and my nephew
Liam_0121.jpg


So, I'll take any advice from anyone who has any tips about portrait lighting. I'm completely new at this but am really really excited.
 
Happy Birthday!!!!!:yay:


What a great gift to yourself. You will love your AB800 - I have two of them as well as two 400's and I LOVE THEM.

Just one thing that may come as a shock to you - those softboxes (I have the large not the extra large) are HUGE and HEAVY - especially on a stand with the actual light. Make sure you have a heavy duty stand that can easily handle the weight without tipping over.

I purposely bought their heavy-duty stand for the AB800 with the large softbox. I am able to use my old cheapie hot light stands for everything else - but I can't imagine that light with that softbox on one of the smaller less sturdy stands.

Maybe yours is a better quality than mine - just don't be suprised when you get it if you need to go back and order the stand as well.

:goodvibes I am so excited for you. I can't wait to see what you get and how you like your AB when it comes. Keep us posted.

This has occurred to me, and I probably made the wrong decision about the stability of my light stand. I don't think it's industrial-strength strong, just kinda average. I was just having sticker shock (I knew I still needed to buy a light meter). I'm going to check some local stores for stronger stands, but I can see me having to get having to buy a different one and I'll wish I had ordered it at the same time as the light to get the AB discount.

Thanks for the encouragement! :goodvibes:
 
I found this awhile back to show lighting set ups.

Lighting Setup psd

If you Photoshop you can use this templete to show your lighting setup. Thought this might be good for this post if you wanted to share. :)

Cheers.
 













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