Allien Bee 800

[fotojoem]

Can anyone assist me in better understanding the A/B setup? I have it mounted with an octabox 36" and for some reason from shot to shot the lighting is very inconsistant. I do not have a light meter. It just seems as though I should be able to set the power on light and the stobe be somewhat consistant from one shot to another.

Thanks
Joe

[Curtis N]

What power setting are you using? The Bees tend to loose consistency around 1/16 power or less.

What is your white balance setting? With AWB the camera takes a guess and guesses a bit differently on each shot. Try the flash WB setting or do a custom white balance.

A few samples with EXIF might help, too.

[eduardofrances]

Can anyone assist me in better understanding the A/B setup? I have it mounted with an octabox 36" and for some reason from shot to shot the lighting is very inconsistant. I do not have a light meter. It just seems as though I should be able to set the power on light and the stobe be somewhat consistant from one shot to another.

Thanks
Joe

There could be many issues:
1) Recycle time: are you waiting for the strobe to recycle enough energy for the ouput power you selected? -i dunno ab's but if it doesn't do a "beep" the modeling light should dim until the unit has recycled to full power

2) If white balance becomes a problem get a Whibal is a gray card that allows you to get the correct colors in post processing, what you do is you setup your lighting and position your subject, take a photo of your subject with the gray card and then remove it and keep shooting, once you are in the post processing stage you use the gray card to get the correct color and batch correct the rest of the photos -if you cange your ligthing setup you should repeat the process described above-

Post some photos to see what's happening :)

[fotojoem]

These are all good questions.... I will go down to the studio and change the white balance
and shoot a couple of shots now and see what happens. I will post the results.

Thanks


Joe

[evolved]

Can anyone assist me in better understanding the A/B setup? I have it mounted with an octabox 36" and for some reason from shot to shot the lighting is very inconsistant. I do not have a light meter. It just seems as though I should be able to set the power on light and the stobe be somewhat consistant from one shot to another.

Thanks
Joe


what isn't consistent? the WB, or the exposure?

[doidinho]

If you are shooting a moving subject (like a model perhaps) and the light is close to them, any slight movement towards or away from the light source can change their exposure quite a bit.

[AxxisPhoto]

what isn't consistent? the WB, or the exposure?

If it's WB set it to flash or use a card. For exposure, never shoot w/o a light meter.

[evolved]

If it's WB set it to flash or use a card. For exposure, never shoot w/o a light meter.


this site never ceases to amaze me....

AB's have been known to have noticeable color shifts, especially at lower power. using a custom WB will not solve this, nor will using a lightmeter to gauge exposure, unless you use the meter with every single shot you take.

Assuming he's talking about the WB being inconsistent, it could be due to what I described above.

Assuming the exposure is inconsistent (again, making the assumption that he didn't change anything) it could be a multitude of issues, but unless he's more specific in what issues he's experiencing we can't make an accurate judgment.

[Papa Carlo]

Double check that your camera is i manual mode.