Another Lighting Question

[dennykyser]

Ok, got my alien bees 800 and love it. I am sure I will be getting another one to replace my medalight 600-XL but before I do that I need a background/hair light. Do I get a alien bees 400, or a flash that can be used for more than a background light. I see the Vivitar 285 is quite inexpensive and may be more versitile. I have tried every way you can imagine to use my 550EX of camera in Manual mode via pc cords. (I would have flash behind client) so dont really want to rely on the ST-E2

What are your thoughts?

[chris.bailey]

I have used the 550EX and STE2 for background and accent light purposes. The 550EX is hand if you want some light from directly overhead and have not got the headroom or stands to mount a big flash in that way.

You do need to set the STE2 up so that it does not pre-flash the 550EX and then set of the other strobes, I use a Wein Safe Sync between the 10D and the STE2. The STE2 will then fire all of my Bowens units and the 550EX in perfect sysnc. Setting up the 550EX in Manual is very hit and miss. I have got some very nice effect by firing the 550EX upwards onto a lastolite hung from the ceiling, softens the whole thing up a bit.

http://www.pbase.com/image/23125661 was without and
http://www.pbase.com/image/23125884 was with the above. I found the 550EX firing straight down was too much.

[DaveG]

Ok, got my alien bees 800 and love it. I am sure I will be getting another one to replace my medalight 600-XL but before I do that I need a background/hair light. Do I get a alien bees 400, or a flash that can be used for more than a background light. I see the Vivitar 285 is quite inexpensive and may be more versitile. I have tried every way you can imagine to use my 550EX of camera in Manual mode via pc cords. (I would have flash behind client) so dont really want to rely on the ST-E2

What are your thoughts?

I'm uncertain if you are currently using your Medalight flash as well as the new Alien Bee in a main/fill roll. If you are doing portraiture you definitely need a lighting ratio. Perhaps you are using the two flashes like this now but your note is kind of vague. In any event you will need the second flash BEFORE you bother with a hair light.

But on the hair light front, you could use your 550EX flash with a regular light slave attached. You'd need to set the 550 to a manual setting but these setting go from 1:128 to 1:1 so you'd have plenty of choice. I have soft velcro strips on the side of my flashes so I can add fill or flag cards easily. With the 550 as a hair light I'd probably select the narrowest zoom setting that the flash offers. I'd attach two flags to both sides of the flash to form a directional snoot and I'd mount it all on a light stand.

Now the 550 is a very expensive hair light amd I wouldn't reccomend it if you didn't already have one. The other thing is that with light slaves you can't use them if there are any other flashes around. Aunt Gertrude's point and shoot flash will happlily set off anything you've slaved. So be aware of that before you buy any light slaves.

[dennykyser]

I have yet to get the 550ex to work off camera with any photoslave or pc sync cord. I have even tried using the off camera shoe cord hooked to flash, and hot shot to Pc cord hooked to off camera shoe cord and it works one time then locks up. And yes the 550ex is on manual. Photo slaves are the same way. fires flash one time then 550 locks up.

I have two mono's that I use for fill and main light w/umbrellas trying to get a good background/ hair light.