AB's witch one do i get

Hi, new to the forums. Everyone here seems knowledgible and most of all nice so i thought this would be the best place to ask some questions^^

I've been working with continous tungsten lights in a very tight area ( less than 9ft in width and only 7ft in width. i decided to move my studio to a bigger 11'x11' ft room. So since i am moving to a bigger room it gave me the excuse i needed to switch to strobes!

I've many threads on alien bee strobes and decided that those are the monolights i'm gonna get. However i'm not sure as to the power i'm going to need to do glamour, portrait and whatever else i could possibly shoot in studio.

I have been considering a couple of set ups. One is 3 AB800's another is (don't know if it's good to mix different watt lights) 1 AB800 as a key light, 2 AB400's as hair/backdrop light. I thought about 3 AB400's but i'm uncertain if that would be enough light for full body portraits or even group shots in studio. I'm also looking to be able to use a fast enought shutter speed to stop movement but i want to keep my aperture around f4-f11

Thanks
-Mike

Mike,
welcome to POTN!

In that small of a room 400s will do, but the 800s will give you more more incase you're shooting in a larger area, it's always better to have too much power than not enough. There are numerous threads on Alien Bees, do a search or two and read, read, read Most people on here will suggest the 800s, I have 4 of them so I'd suggest them as well. When you order, get a good softbox or even the 48" brolley boxes.

The light from the strobe will last less than 1/1000 of a second. You'll set your shutter speed to around 1/125 so that the entire frame is exposed when the strobe fires. However, the effect is still like a 1/1000 shutter speed since that is the amount of time that light is present in the scene.

In your room, the 400 is fine. However, more powerful is sometimes better. You can always turn the light down. If you turn in all the way down, you can use a neutral density gel or filter to lessen it even more. But there is no way to turn up a maxed out light if you want to shoot outside or in a group setting.

Thanks for your advice deadpass and dagwell. I think what i'm gonna do is go for the three AB800's and if i need to purchase an ND filter.

You can't go wrong with AB800's.