Hi guys, I've posted a few questions regarding light and modifiers, and I appreciate all of the help given. I am brand new at photography, and want to do mostly beauty work. So, I have decided to begin with a one light setup that includes a beauty dish and studio strobe (I also have a large 5 in 1 reflector to use for fill). I will be adding more lighting eventually,m but I need to learn to control one light first, before I get too complex. My only issue is, which strobe to get. I originally wanted the Alien Bee B400, but I noticed that the wattage is not high, and from my understanding, for the type of work I want to do, I'd need 300-400w, with a lot of versatility as far as the power range goes. I am now looking at the Westcott Strobelite & Strobelite Plus, but am open to any suggestions for a great, reasonably priced strobe for a beginning beauty photographer on a one light setup. I am having a little difficulty understanding how to choose a good strobe.Thank you in advance! All suggestions are appreciated.
Hello again! I bought an AB1600 as my first strobe and its certainly too powerful for indoor use, unless you've got a giant space (and giant modifiers). I've never brought it above minimum power indoors. If I could do it again, and I was going with PCB, I'd probably go with an 800 (or even a 400, but all I know now is 1600 is way too much).
I do like my AB, works well enough, there's not much I feel like I'm "missing" while I'm using it, unlike when I started before with speedlights. There's modifiers for PCB that work directly with it as well, and they're fairly priced.
But, there are certainly other options :). Good luck again.
As mentioned by others, 300-400W is too much for indoor use. Was in the same dilemma you were some time ago and i ended up getting a pair of 500W strobes which were proven to be too powerful.
So i kept them for outdoor use, got a 100W for indoor use and couldn't be happier.