Alien bees question

[texassand]

Hi all, after all your wonderful input, I've decided to go with the beginner's alienbees light set. now what else will I need? I'm looking at a Polaris flash meter. They are pretty expensive though. Any other brands that you could recommend that are cheaper? Also, the "radio slave trigger" set up confuses me. I just can't seem to wrap my brain around the idea. Will I need one of these? Oh and these alienbees have to plugged into an outlet correct? So it will be hard to do "location" work?

Happy Holidays!!

Sarah

 

[KevinR]

The Alien Bees have an optical trigger built in. Meaning that the sync cord(one comes with each light) is plugged into a light and when you shoot, the others will fire too. They do sell a radio trigger. The sender mounts on your camera and the receiver plugs into a light. You can get more than one receiver. When these are plugged in, they turn off the optical sensor. AB also sells a portable power pack for mobile shooting. They are pretty cool and I plan on getting one. Generally, all good meters are kinda expensive. I use a usedSekonic, but I looked at Minolta also. Good luck.