Alien Bees owners, I need help...

Well I am trying to figure out how to put the soft boxes together. I have both the larger and smaller ones. Where do the poles go? Also, how does the slave work? Will it automatically work with what ever one I sync with? Please lete me know...Dean

Greetings Dean,
I'm assuming that you recieved the speedring, it has eight holes on the outer diameter and the inner diameter attaches the face of the flash unit. Instructions for assembly should have come with it, however it is pretty straightforward. On the inside corners of the white diffuser sheet there is a small square shaped pocket in each corner. Place one end of a rod in this pocket and the other end of the rod into the speedring's O.D. holes. Take another rod and do the opposite corner the same way. Do all four corners. If you don't get the rods in the correct holes in the speedring it will be pretty obvious as the diffuser panel won't be strecthed equally. Then lay this on the ground with the white diffuser panel on the ground and the rods and speedring in the air and slip the outer black cover on and attach the two together at the velcro seams. You can then lay it on its side or back and open a seam and insert the small inner diffusion panel on the four velcro tabs connecting onto the inside of the black cover portion. Please note that on the 30" x 60" softbox, it is easier the leave the softbox facedown on the ground and attach the flash unit to it than it is to try to attach the softbox to a mounted flash unit!
As far as the slave goes, they can sync off of the one you are connected to, you can hard wire all of them together, or you can use your camera's speedlight or flash to run them, really simple to use. ***DISCLAIMER*** I never use my camera in any mode other than manual and I always set flash outputs manually. I have no idea what would happen if you were in some other mode or using the ETTL. I'm thinking the pre-flash of ETTL would fire the flash and you would be waiting a second or two for the re-charge. I'm sure others on here can help with more advanced options.
Good luck and have fun,

Todd Asher

Thanks Todd, I will try again to hook up the soft box again. I also use shoot exclusively in M mode myself. I have abandoned all program modes years ago...Dean

It's possible that, under some circumstances, one or more of your slave-actuated lights might not "see" the one that's triggered by your camera. For that situation, I use Wein Peanut slaves on the ends of the PC cables and point the Wein slave at the source light. I have had to do this in outdoor situations at times. I have never had the built-in slaves fail in an indoor situation with surfaces that reflect light around the room.

Occasionally I have found that I have to use a white plastic sheet (or other reflecting device) behind an Alien Bees flash in slave mode for them to see the main go off, tends to be needed most when I use them for spot lights and the back end (where the slave pickup is) is out of view of the main (or other slaves).