i just took my first shots with my new alien bee lights! wow, love them!

i practiced on my son and have a headshot for a client in 30 minutes.

i hope it goes well!

any thoughts or tips on the bees? i'll take them.

No tips, but they have been on my purchase list for some time now. Great value for the money! Which model did you get?

I heart mine. I've had them for 3 years and travel with them constantly. They are holding up perfectly. I just got their new ring flash thing week.

Be sure you pick up a pack of their honeycombs grids if you haven't done so. I'm always able to do really creative things with them.

I must be in the dark ages... Alien Bee's?

I LOVE my Alien Bees.

One thing I'm learning to do with them is to feather the light -- not use it straight, but to use the fall off for dramatic impact.

Can we see some examples of this and that honeycomb thing Sandra talked about? Sounds exciting!

Affordable studio lights and other products. They'reeeeeeeeee.....greeeeeeat!

I love my Bee's
I would love to have about 3 more

I love mine too. I enjoy that I can do so much more with my photography by having the bee's available.
I currently have two B800 and one B400.

I am doing this also. I tried it on my last client.

Love my bees!

Here are a few random examples of I've shot with the honeycomb grids. My "thing" is dramatic lighting - so I tend to just blast them with the light using the grids to control and beam the light in. All these were actually taken in well light daytime rooms - I just use higher shutter speeds and meter for the grid light and not the room light. The grids work like a snoot but are more controlled - and much easier to travel with.

I've also used them as a hairlight on a boomstand. Such as the portrait of the boy with dyed black hair and a black background. I needed some pop of light to separate his hair. In some of these there is also an alien bee with a grid in back of the bride with it going through the veil.

Let me know if you have any questions.

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I've used the bees for a couple of years now. One accessory I cannot recommend enough is the Vagabond battery pack. I use the V150.

The battery pack goes with me on every shoot.

At weddings, the vagabond and pocket wizards eliminate all cords from the floor which equals less liability and fast repositioning of the light.

Because I don't have a studio, I usually shoot portraits outdoors, preferrably at sunset. The AB+vagabond combo allows me to overpower the sun...



The sun is directly behind the subject's head in this shot...