Alien Bee

[milavidal]

I just ordered a B800 alien Bee. I currently own a D80. I also have the SB -800 which I use sometimes off camera wireless. What is needed to trigger the alien bee? I searched and searched, but I can't seem to understand...

 

[usayit]

www.strobist.com has a lot of good info on lighting. Look under the lighting 101 archive.... PC's and Pocket Wizards as well as the entries for DIY PC cords.

good FAQ here too:
http://www.mpex.com/page.htm?PG=Strobist FAQ

Wired (PC or household extension), Optical, or Radio are your options.

 

[milavidal]

Thank you usayit, I will deff. look through those links. Now, what exactly would household extension be? Basically, I was hoping to use my setup by this weekend, and I didnt even come to wonder what triggers them when I ordered. I dont want to spend over 100.00 right now, possibly later.

 

[sabbath999]

you can trigger it with your SB-600... if you just want to light with the Bee, flash the SB-600 pointed toward the Bee set on slave mode.

 

[usayit]

Doh! yeh.. I forgot... Sabbath is right. The alien bees have built in optical slave too.

 

[milavidal]

Great! Thank you soooo much for the info!

 

[Big Mike]

The light comes with a PC cord. Just plug the cord into your camera's PC socket and you are good to go.

The light does have a built-in optical slave trigger, but if you want to use your flash to trigger the AB light, you will have to disable the preflash if there is one.

Don't forget that you have to shoot in manual mode when using studio lights.

 

[milavidal]

Thank you BigMike.

I just got it in the mail earlier today and I can't wait to put it to use. Will do on Sunday. I took a couple of test shots but the subject (my brother) wasnt so excited to be dragged to the front of the camera...happens all the time around here you know! Anyway, preflash disabled, and voila! Everything works fine =]