About to purchase. Any advice?

I'm about to purchase the following items:

B800 Yellow Studio Flash
The Vagabond II Portable Power System
AlienBees Carrying Bag
Foldable Large Octabox (47in.) with attached speedring
13-foot Heavy Duty Stand

I don't have a studio, so I'm either doing non-full body shots in my home (medium size room, low ceilings) or location shoots. My 43" umbrella has been touching the ceiling at times, but served me well for my in home shots. Would the 35" be better? If the 47" is too big at times for the angle I want (at my home) I won't be bummed, as long as I can at lest use it some of the time. I think the 47" would be better for full body on location; however, I don't much experience, so I don't really know. Thats just my reasoning for going with the large octabox.

Any thoughts on getting the grid? I don't understand at what times it would be useful; is it really useful to have? Do I "want/need" it?

I plan on using my small flash units w/ the AB, so please take that into consideration with any comments you may have.

Regards

Yellow? Are you sure you want to do THAT?

Titus213 wrote in post #6200778
Yellow? Are you sure you want to do THAT?

Actually, no I'm not; it's either yellow or black.

Go with the large folding octa. Don't worry too much about the grid. You'll love the Vagabond. I wouldn't do yellow.

PS. Try the octa without the outer diffuser some time.

Thank for the replies. In response to your comments I have totally changed my intended order.

B800 Black Studio Flash
The Vagabond II Portable Power System
AlienBees Carrying Bag
Foldable Large Octabox (47in.) with attached speedring
13-foot Heavy Duty Stand

Any comments?

:thumbs up:
5-in-1 reflector?

pepperoni wrote in post #6201342
:thumbs up:
5-in-1 reflector?

Already have one; very useful.

The 47" Octa definitely isn't too big, stick with that.

Ok, the trigger has been pulled:

2 Black AB800's
1-Large Octabox
1-Large Octabox Grid
1-30 degree Honeycomb
1-Vagabond
1-13' light stand
1-10' light stand
2-light bags

Should be here late next week.

After reading about the color temp issues at low output I was a bit hesitant about getting these. I could have went with some AC strobes that put off better light; however, I knew that I would want to do some location shooting sooner than later (probably much sooner) and the next cheapest DC strobes (that I liked, the Rangers) were more than twice as expensive.

I figured that if I want to upgrade later I'm still going to want to keep the Bees around for location shoots. This totally blew my all of my camera spending budget for a while, so I'm going to have plenty of time to think it through before making a move.

I just hope I can control my modifier purchases. Paul Buff modifiers are just low enough in price that I can almost feel a slow steady stream of cash flowing out of my pocket and in to his.