Alien Bee 800 or 1200 what to do?

[SkipD]

Do you realize that lights like the AlienBees B800 and B1600 are "studio" lights that need to be supported by light stands and cannot be aimed toward the action (which is moving all over the gym floor) very easily? They are not nearly powerful enough to be useful by bouncing the light off a typical gymnasium ceiling either. They are probably much too powerful to be aiming directly at atheletes on the gym floor with the lights only a few feet off the floor - you'd be temporarily blinding them if they happened to be near the lights and looking toward them when you took a shot.

I would highly recommend talking to the athletes or at least their coaches before doing this.

Most fixed gymnasium photo lighting is done with strobes mounted high overhead and triggered with radio links between the camera(s) and the lights. That way, the lighting is not flashing directly into the faces of the athletes and it covers the gym floor fairly evenly. I seriously doubt that AlienBees lights - even the B1600's (about 640 watt-seconds) are powerful enough to be useful in lighting up the gym floor this way without using quite a few of them. You'd need a radio receiver for each one. This would be a VERY expensive proposition.

What you probably want is a professional-grade portable flash unit that you would mount on a bracket along with your camera and using a belt-carried battery to power it. The flash that I have in mind (though I don't know of any makes or models) would be several times more powerful than the 580EX.

[RSN]

Thanks for all the great advice!

The ABA team plays in a gym that only holds about 2000 the only place they could get to play this year. So it will be easier to light than the two high schools we have in town. Oh and I will be shooting the action and not the crowd there too just had to throw that in sorry

I think I will go with the AB1600 so in case I need the power else where I will have it.

Thanks agian for the advice.

Rod

[SkipD]

Originally Posted by RSN

Thanks for all the great advice!

The ABA team plays in a gym that only holds about 2000 the only place they could get to play this year. So it will be easier to light than the two high schools we have in town. Oh and I will be shooting the action and not the crowd there too just had to throw that in sorry

I think I will go with the AB1600 so in case I need the power else where I will have it.

Thanks agian for the advice.

Rod

I repeat - how are you going to follow the action with a flash unit that is on a stand? You need something portable so that you can aim it where the camera is aimed.

[cdifoto]

Originally Posted by RSN

Thanks for all the great advice!

The ABA team plays in a gym that only holds about 2000 the only place they could get to play this year. So it will be easier to light than the two high schools we have in town. Oh and I will be shooting the action and not the crowd there too just had to throw that in sorry

I think I will go with the AB1600 so in case I need the power else where I will have it.

Thanks agian for the advice.

Rod

You could get the B1600 and if it isn't powerful enough after all, you add a reflector and have a nice basic studio light setup. If it IS powerful enough, well then there ya go. A nice basic studio setup AND something for sports.

B1600s aren't any more expensive than a 580EX anyway so it's not a total waste of cash.

[RSN]

I use a 580 ex now and it does ok. I am going to put the AB lights about 35 feet high in the corners and point them towards the foul line and and only shoot one side of the court. The news photographers use one 1600 pointed at the top of the key and it lights up pretty well for them thats why I was thinking maybe two AB800 would be enough but I think two AB1600 would be best. That way I would get more use out of them for other things. And yes I would be ordering radio remotes for them.

Thanks
Rod

[cgratti]

He can just aim it at one end of the court and shoot the action at that end only.

[RSN]

Just thought I would let everyone know what my outcome was.

I got 2 AB800 with 11" reflectors and radio remotes I used them tonight for the first time WOW. They work great. The ceiling at this high school is made kind of strange so you cant bounce it off the ceiling in no way shape or form so I put them at the highest point in the gym put one light in each corner on one side of the gym and had to turn the power down to a little below half power and shot at 250 shutter speed 2.8 at 200 iso and got great pics.They were up high enogh to the celing that it didn't bother the players I asked and they said they didn't even notice them. I still have to set them up a little better than I did but I will get it figured out once I get used to what they can do.

Just thoght I would let evrey one know what I decided on and thank everyone for their input.

Rod

[FlashZebra]

Originally Posted by RSN

Just thought I would let everyone know what my outcome was.

I got 2 AB800 with 11" reflectors and radio remotes I used them tonight for the first time WOW. They work great. The ceiling at this high school is made kind of strange so you cant bounce it off the ceiling in no way shape or form so I put them at the highest point in the gym put one light in each corner on one side of the gym and had to turn the power down to a little below half power and shot at 250 shutter speed 2.8 at 200 iso and got great pics.They were up high enogh to the celing that it didn't bother the players I asked and they said they didn't even notice them. I still have to set them up a little better than I did but I will get it figured out once I get used to what they can do.

Just thoght I would let evrey one know what I decided on and thank everyone for their input.

Rod

Thank you for posting back to the forum with this follow up. So many that seek lots of help from many help never report back, and that is very disapointing.

Once again, thanks.

Enjoy! Lon

PS: there are a couple of active threads dealing with this same subject, you might want to post your experiences.

[SkipD]

Originally Posted by RSN

Just thought I would let everyone know what my outcome was.

I got 2 AB800 with 11" reflectors and radio remotes I used them tonight for the first time WOW. They work great. The ceiling at this high school is made kind of strange so you cant bounce it off the ceiling in no way shape or form so I put them at the highest point in the gym put one light in each corner on one side of the gym and had to turn the power down to a little below half power and shot at 250 shutter speed 2.8 at 200 iso and got great pics.They were up high enogh to the celing that it didn't bother the players I asked and they said they didn't even notice them. I still have to set them up a little better than I did but I will get it figured out once I get used to what they can do.

Just thoght I would let evrey one know what I decided on and thank everyone for their input.

Rod - I'm glad to hear that they worked out well for you.

I would suggest that you crank up the flash units to full power and close down the aperture by a stop or so to get better depth of field (and less focusing criticality as a result).