Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Yes, pros are still using ABs in large numbers. But a good number are moving to Einstein. Don't have an exact number, but I suspect around 40% of magazine shots you see are AB shots. I would also guess that less than 5% of USA pros are using high end European flashes, and that most of them use rental studios.

Thanks for the explanation, Paul.

that seems to make sense. The people on forums who talk about the benefits of European strobes say that they like being able to rent either the strobes or modifiers in most major cities.

I am going to guess that part of that is because the European strobes spend more time in the shop being repaired, hence the increased need to be able to rent a similar device or modifier. ;)

But I guess if you actually want to OWN your strobes instead of renting them (or the modifiers for them), then the European strobes are at something of a disadvantage.

Thank you, tech support;

Yes, I was outdoors but under a canopy of trees (there was enough foliage overhead that all the ambient light had a green color cast to it). So the ambient light was f/2 at 1/200th at ISO 100.

And since my hands are a bit shakey, I had the shutter at 1/200th (my max sync speed).

But you are right: when I was NOT under the canopy of trees, I was much closer to f/5.6 with a polarizer on my lens at ISO 100.

Planet, I expect it depends on just what kind of photography the professional is doing. I'd expect pros who need lights with a higher performance rating, or a high snobbery rating, would want to use something else.

The recycle times on my ABs have never been an issue with me, and I wouldn't think they'd ever be an issue unless the model is posing really fast. Checking the specs: B400 0.5 sec, B800 1 sec, B1600 2 sec, all at full power.

But what I'm more curious about is the proportion of Bees owned by people who rent them out, either someone like LensRentals, or places that provide lights when they rent out studios to photographers.

Not many AB rentals. When peeps rent lights they usually want Einsteins or Euro lights. I've heard a very big percentage of the Euro lights are sold to rental houses.

You would be surprised at some of our customers that literally buy thousands of Bees . . . Saudi Arabia uses them in traffic light cameras, many states use them in for drivers license photos, and several chains of volume child photo photographer franchises.

Also, many magazine publishers have AB studios.

That is good to know that they are so widely used in such a breadth of industries.

Yes, I think most of the local studios that rent out time are equipped with Alien Bees.

I guess this quote I just came across in a lighting book sums it up:



Jeff Smith
Step-by-Step Lighting For Studio Portrait Photography
2013, Amherst Media
ISBN-13: 978-1-60895-622-7