Hi everyone! I am brand new to photography and am finally looking into kicking it up a notch from natural lighting & getting some artificial lights. As of now, I think I will be purchasing an Alien Bee strobe with a beauty dish, as well as a soft box, which I will either use with a speedlight or another Alien Bee strobe. I use an entry level DSLR (Canon t5i), with a 50mm lens. So, I am wondering, how exactly are strobes "fired" (particularly Alien Bee strobes). I understand they somehow have to sync to the camera, but do I also need to purchase some sort of trigger or transmitter? What exactly do I need to automatically fire my flashes? Thank you for the help, as always.
Hi Tia,
The alien bees will come with a sync cable that connects between the light and camera. This is the most basic way to create a connection between your light and camera. The other option is to get a trigger set. One transmitter for the camera hotshoe and one receiver for the light. There are a lot of different trigger setups on the market. One of the more popular brands are Pocket Wizard triggers. These are going to be in the higher price range but also have a lot of options. On the low end are the Yongnuo triggers. These are very basic no frills triggers. I use them with my speedlites and have used them on paul c buff white lightnings as well. You can find the most basic versions on amazon for about $15. Since you are new to artificial light I would recommend starting here. The cost is minimal and in my experience they do the job very well. Paul C Buff also sells triggers for their lights and are in the middle of the road price range. I use their cyber commander transmitter and their receivers with a set of einsteins and I love this setup as it allows me to control multiple lights right from the cyber commander. I don't recommend starting here however simply because their is a lot to learn with lighting setups, modifiers, and the relationship between your camera and the lights. I feel that getting all of the bells and whistles on your triggers right out of the gate can be a bit overwhelming as well as expensive. Plus you may end up spending all that money and find that you don't care for artificial light. There are a lot of other options but I can only speak from my experience. Hopefully others will chime in with theirs as well.
Hope this helps.
Justin
Hi Tia,
Pocket Wizards are great but as mentioned can be somewhat confusing to operate. Radio Poppers are less confusing and less expensive. The sync cord to camera option isn't a good one for on location shooting due to the fact you can be several feet from your light and those cords are not very long. Do your research and find what system works for you and fits into your budget. Once you have that figured out do a lot of test shots before you do any important shoots. Above all, have fun with it.