Abstract Fun

In one of the rare times I put effort and setup a light stand and an umbrella to shoot my girls, I decided to make use of this burst of energy and shoot some artificial flowers that we bought recently to decorate the house. It has an interesting shape and some glittery material applied. Click through to read on.

My default flash photography is on-camera bounce flash, and I usually get the results I want for quick candid shots of my kids doing various things, however, this type of lighting creates very soft, almost even light. But this time I wanted more direction and fall-off, so I used a reflective umbrella with a black backing, and started fooling around with angles, shadows and light fall-off.

One of the interesting things I found was the violet shades at the edges of light reflected from the umbrella, I thought it looked cool, so I tried to position myself and the light to get more of that effect. And I like the results.

I was using my 5D Mark II with the 24-105, all shots were taken @ f/5.6, I used the 580EX II on-camera as a trigger with no output during the actual exposure, and the flash inside the umbrella was my newly acquired Yongnuo 560 II with the LCD screen, an excellent cheap manual flash.

My next post will be the first part about my recent desert trip to Fayoum - Wadi El Rayan.

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Lighting A Geomag, The Lazy Way

So how do you light a Geomag in an interesting way while keeping all these lightstands and modifiers tucked away in their bags? Click through to know how.

P.S. If you don't know what's a Geomag, check their product page or have a look at some insane contraptions over google images.

I have a few lightstands and modifiers that I use every now and then, but I hate taking them out of their bags and setting them up unless I specifically need them in something important, but for a casual image I use a much more efficient method, bounce flash.

I recieved a small Geomag kit as a gift in an innovation workshop, it consists of little magnetized metal bars, and small metal balls (bearings?) which you can use to create all sorts of shapes. My wife made that shape you see at the top and I decided to take a few photos. The room lights were overhead and weren't very interesting, so I decided to bring out my flashes and bounce them around the room using the walls and the ceiling as large light sources.

I have three speedlites that I can trigger wirelessly from my camera using the pop-up flash, I put the Geomag at the middle of the bed, then I put one speedlite to the right of the Geomag bouncing it towards the ceiling just above and a little behind me, the flash head was zoomed to 50mm to get a large soft light, the flash was on TTL, here's the shot I got:

It looked pretty ugly just the way direct flash photos look, and the bed sheets behind the Geomag were dark, remember that this shot was completely lit with flash, I have increased the shutter speed to the max sync speed and decreased the ISO until the room lights didn't register.

So what I did next was add (and by add, I mean throw it on the bed, no stands or tripods or anything) another TTL speedlite, but this one was bounced to the right and behind the Geomag, it hit the ceiling and wall and bounced back, then I took the following test shot:

Looks better this time but not good enough, I know I could raise the exposure of the whole photo to have the bright look I was looking for, but there's something still missing, the inside of the Geomag pyramid is in shadows and needs more light.

The back side of this bed is directly to the left of the Geomag, and is made from reddish-brown wood, and from experience, I knew that bouncing flash from this wood would create a reddish color cast, I thought that would add an interesting dimension to the final shot, so I added the third and the final TTL speedlite and bounced it directly to the left of the Geomag, here's what I got:

A much better looking result, don't you agree? After being satisfied with my lighting I decided to start taking actual shots from different view points, I also used a shallow DoF to make the Geomag stand out a little more.

And finally here's a crop from the metal ball in the above shot acting as a 360 degree mirror, it will show you the directions from which the lights were falling, the light you see from the camera is the pop-up flash trigerring the speedlites, it is very weak and does not contribute to the final exposure.

I hope you've enjoyed this quick tutorial, please if you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them.

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Are You Ready for AlienBees?

In the last several years, speedlights have been roped into tasks that have traditionally been filled by studio strobes.  The underlying premise is that speedlights are much more compact, and easier to bring to and set up for a location shot.  Combined with their TTL and high-speed sync capabilities, plus their lower upfront cost, speedlights do offer practical advantages over studio strobes.

At some point though, we run into barriers that remind us of the natural limits of speedlights.  The most significant limit is of course power.  Another is the speedlight's reflector design, which sends light only forward.

It is possible to engineer solutions around those obstacles.  For example, if we need more power, we can combine two or more speedlights.  However, sometimes those solutions create problems of their own.  If we gang four speedlights, we indeed get more power but then we limit our options for light modifiers (there are only a few softbox designs that can accommodate 4 flashes).

Instead of going to extreme lengths to stretch our speedlights, however, perhaps we could reconsider using a studio strobe instead.  One particular studio strobe stands out for its dependability and very high power-to-cost ratio: AlienBees.   Hit the jump to learn more about AlienBees and whether they are right for you.




BACKGROUND
After Paul Buff's White Lightning monolights became a runaway success, Paul turned his attention to younger photographers who had limited budgets.  Using the lessons he learned from almost two decades of making White Lightnings, Paul Buff designed and created the more economical and whimsically-named Alien Bees in 2001, with the tagline Bee Abducted.

YOU MIGHT BEE ABDUCTED IF...

• If you find yourself combining two or more speedlights from time to time, you might bee abducted.  The B800 and B1600 have plenty of power, with output the equivalent of about 5 speedlights or 10 speedlights, respectively.  In the shots below, using a B1600 (and a Nikon D70) we were able to underexpose very sunny ambient light while shooting with a 24" umbrella about 10 feet away:

ISO 200, f/8, 1/800

• If you are becoming particular about your choice of light modifiers, and are using speedlights for modifiers that weren't originally designed for speedlights, you might bee abducted.  Yes it's possible to use speedlights for modifiers that weren't originally designed for them, but it may entail compromises.  For example, if you use a speedlight to light a softbox, the light will tend to illuminate only the front diffuser, and less so the sides of the softbox, in turn making a hotspot more likely.  You could use a sto-fen type diffuser, but that would reduce the efficiency of the speedlight.  On the other hand, AlienBees have a bare bulb design, where the flash tube sticks out from the body of the flash and the reflector can be removed to create omnidirectional light.  That allows lighting a softbox as evenly (and as efficiently) as possible.

There are increasing numbers of modifiers for speedlights but there is a still wider variety of light modifiers for monolights such as the AlienBees, and they tend to perform better than their speedlight counterparts (again, due to the bare bulb design).  Here, for example, I used a B1600 with a 48-inch octagon softbox with grid:

• If you would love to see the highlight and shadow pattern in realtime as you position the lights, you might bee abducted.  AlienBees have a modeling lamp (up to 150w), which allow you to see the highlight and shadow pattern of the flash in realtime, making it easier to position your lights for your intended effect.  Some speedlights do have a modeling lamp as well but they are too weak and too brief to be very useful.

• If you are looking for a means to light a large room (such as at a party) while using a separate light for taking photos of subjects, you might bee abducted.  Speedlights will be hard-pressed to light up a large room (unless you use several of them).  Strobes such as the AlienBees are much better suited for the job because they not only have a lot of power but they can recycle quickly and keep firing without overheating.

DISADVANTAGES vs. SPEEDLIGHTS

• AlienBees need AC power.  If a power outlet is nearby then all you'll need is the power cord or an extension cord.  Otherwise, you'll need a portable AC power source.  Not just any power either -- you'll need one with a pure sine wave inverter.
• Manual only - no TTL.  In an ideal world, the photographer would always retain full control of flash exposure.  However, when the subject is moving around a lot and constantly changing his or her distance to the flash (e.g. kids) TTL is useful.  Unfortunately, AlienBees and other monolights (or pack-and-heads) don't have TTL.
• No true high speed sync mode.  Although there are ways of going above sync speed and forcing the flash to fire, the flash burst of an Alien Bee won't burn slow enough to last through the entire shutter movement, resulting in very uneven exposure across the frame.  (This is not an issue when you have an electronic shutter.)
• Slower flash duration at lower output (except IGBT monolights such as the Einstein).  Unlike speedlights, when you reduce the power, the flash duration increases (becomes slower).  

CHOOSE YOUR ALIENBEE
AlienBees come in three models with varying capacity: the B400 (160ws), the B800 (320ws), and the B1600 (640ws).  (Note: although there is a White Lightning X3200 with 1280ws of power, there is no equivalent of the X3200 for AlienBees.)

Personally, I don't think the B400 offers significantly more power compared to speedlights to warrant their use instead of a speedlight.  I would recommend the B800 or B1600 instead.

HOW TO USE AN ALIENBEE

Using an AlienBee is very simple:

• Put the AlienBee on a light stand using its built-in receptacle for light stands.
• Plug it into an AC power source using the supplied 3-prong (NEMA 5) power cord.  
• You can trigger the flash either by its built-in optical slave, a sync cord, or a remote control cable into the RJ-11 port.  If you're using the RJ-11 port, insert a dummy plug into the sync port to disable the built-in optical slave.
• Remove the plastic protective cap over the flash tube by squeezing the two "antenna" at the top of the AlienBee.  You add the flash modifier you want to use (such as a 7-inch reflector or a speedring for a softbox)
• Turn on the strobe.  Slide the power to the desired output level.  You're ready to shoot.
• Here's one difference from how you use speedlights: Whenever you increase the power, the Alienbee will be ready to fire in a second or so.  Whenever you decrease the power, however, you have to wait a little bit for the AlienBee to "dump" the excess energy.  The wait time varies with how far you decreased the power and it can be anywhere from a couple of seconds to a full minute.  While you wait, the dump light will turn red.  It will turn green when it's ready to fire.  Alternatively, instead of waiting, you can press the test button to fire a test shot, which will also get rid of the excess energy.

Modeling Light:
There are a few options for controlling the modeling light. First, you can turn it on or off. Second, you can specify whether it will stay at full intensity or will track the power level (dimming in proportion to the power level you set).  Third, you can specify whether the modeling light will temporarily turn off while the strobe is charging, turning back on when the strobe is ready to fire again.

Remote adjustment:
Maybe I'm spoiled by the Radiopopper JrX, but I really need a remote adjustment option like the JrX to make it practical to control the AlienBee.  I sometimes raise the AlienBee very high, and to have to bring the AlienBee down or tilt the stand every time I want to adjust it is too cumbersome.

As previously mentioned in my JrX review, the JrX receivers include an RJ-11 port that can be connected easily to the RJ-11 port on an AlienBee, White Lightning or Zeus strobe.

PORTABLE POWER OPTIONS
Although an AlienBee requires AC power, you don't have to be tethered to a power outlet.   Paul Buff produces two portable power options: the Vagabond II and the Vagabond Mini.  The Vagabond II ($299) is based on older technology and uses a sealed lead-acid battery.  It has a little more power than the Vagabond Mini, but because of its battery, it weighs over 20 lbs. and must be kept trickle-charged to maintain the battery's capacity.  On the plus side, its weight allows it to double as a sandbag.

Note: The Vagabond II is being phased out.

Vagabond Mini

The Vagabond Mini ($239) is a new portable power option from Paul Buff, just released January 2011.  It uses a cutting-edge lithium-cobalt-nickel-magnesium battery with no memory effect whatsoever and has a very high amount of energy in a compact package.  It weighs only 3.5 lbs. yet has almost as much capacity as the Vagabond II.

Other than the Vagabond II and Vagabond Mini, there are also portable power sources from 3rd parties such as Innovatronix.

I chose the Vagabond Mini.  Although I considered the Vagabond II (so that it can double as a sandbag), I wanted the option of having a lightweight power source.  Plus it doubles as a way to power a laptop or cell phone during long trips (it even has a USB port to power USB devices).

CONCLUSION

I've only had my 'bees for a little while but have become quite fond of them.  It has tremendous power - enough for almost any shot you can imagine.  There are also plenty of light modifiers for it that allow me to achieve effects that I would have some difficulty replicating with a speedlight.  No, it is not a do-it-all light and there are many tasks for which a speedlight is a better tool.  But for setup shots, especially outdoors in bright ambient conditions, or when you want to use a large modifier, there are few tools that will serve you better than studio strobes such as AlienBees.

RELATED POSTS:

Intro to Studio Strobes

Multiple Speedlights

Radiopopper JrX Studio Review

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Flash Series - Part 2: Home Made (DIY) Gels & Gel Holder

In this second part of the flash series (here's the first one) I will discuss home made gels and how do they perform in the real world, I might get a little philosophical (i.e. non-scientific) during the article, so please excuse me. Hit the jump for details and a bonus gel holder idea.

P.S. I wrote an introduction to white balance and color temperatures, but I found it to be too long, thus I have moved it to the bottom of the post, if you don't know what is a color temperature, read the bottom part first.

When I started my strobist path, I was hit in the face with the complete lack of gels in the photography shops in Egypt, and since I don't have a way to order and ship things from US (I do now, but it is expensive, so I leave it for urgent stuff) I had to look for DIY gel solutions, and after some looking around I found this amazing page where I downloaded my gel PDFs and was able to print them and use them. If you're living in the US you can get the ready made Rosco Strobist Gel Set for $9 instead.

The idea is that you have a PDF file with the main gel colors on it (you can make your own if you want), then you buy a laser transparency sheet and print these PDFs using a color laser printer, now you have a sheet with your gels ready, just cut them and find a way to put them in front of your flash head and you're ready to go. You can see my own set at the top of the post.

As far as endurance and heat resistance goes, I never had a problem in that regard. The laser transparencies I used are designed to handle the continuous heat from projector bulbs for extended periods of time, and although I have printed more than one sheet, I am still using the first one I printed.

DIY GELS SYNTHETIC TEST RESULTS

I have never used a real commercial gel on my flash, so I have no idea how they should perform. First, let me talk about tungsten white balance, there is no exact color temperature for tungsten, it depends heavily on the type of the bulb used and the furniture/walls the light reflects from. For example in my room the tungsten WB is around ~ 2200K, while in a different room in the house it is ~ 2650K, and my Canon camera considers tungsten WB to be 3200K, and lightroom has a different temperature!!!

So in order to determine what's what, I used my digital grey kard and tested the color temperatures in different lighting scenarios, my method involved shooting the grey card in RAW then importing the photos to lightroom and using the dropper to select the grey card and determine the correct white balance, here's what I found out:

• Available light only (tungsten): 2650K
• Direct flash with full CTO (zero ambient): 4500K
• Bounce flash with full CTO (zero ambient): 4000K

As you can see, the full CTO doesn't bring the flash color temperature anywhere near the tungsten WB, so does this mean that they don't work? Let's see. Will the Rosco full CTO bring the flash WB to 2800K? I don't know, and if anyone can test this, please do and tell me.

DIY GELS REAL WORLD TEST RESULTS

In this part I will show you how these gels work for me in real life, then I will try to explain the results. When I finished shooting the pictures for this test I discovered that my camera was set on JPEG only and it was impossible for me to re-shoot the pictures or adjust the WB in post, fortunately enough I had the mind to set the WB to tungsten.

Available Light Only

Available Light + Bounce Flash (no gel), do you see the blue color cast?

Available Light + Bounce Flash (1/2 CTO), blue color cast still visible

Available Light + Bounce Flash (full CTO), a much better result

MY PHILOSOPHY:

I think the results speak about themselves, here's my own explanation (philosophy), first of all there is no certain defined white balance for each type of bulb or lighting, the light your camera picks comes from different sources, there is the direct light coming from the source hitting your subject, and there are a lot of other indirect reflections coming from lots of objects around your subject (ex. walls and furniture), these two reasons cause the color temperature to change from one place to another, even from a different position in the same room to another.

When you add bounce flash to the equation, you add a new non-controlled dimension, your flash will bounce from different surfaces and carry different color casts from these surfaces and will probably give you unexpected results. What's more is that when using bounce flash, one usually underexposes the ambient light by one or more stops, thus rendering the original ambient colors muted that it won't really have an apparent effect in the final picture.

Add to all of this the bless of using RAW files and the ability to change the white balance in post at will, and you have a pretty good way to get the results you desire. I almost always tweak the white balance in post processing and adjust it for the correct skin tones (you can use a digital card for a quick and easy adjustment), this adjustment won't have much effect on the rest of the picture (ambient lit) and even if it does, the ambient is already underexposed (muted) that it won't look bad.

In some rare situations when using bounce flash I get some strange color casts that I can't get rid of, my solution is to pull the saturation slider all the way to the left and have an artsy black and white picture.


DIY GEL HOLDER:

To continue with the DIY theme, I have made my own gel envelope (to carry the gels in) and a gel holder to mount the gels to the flash, I saw lots of different ones on the internet and I didn't like most of them, especially the velcro ones since it required me to stick velcro to my flash (which I didn't want to do back then) and will make me stick velcro to each and every gel, then in one of those brain-light moments I had the following idea.

I created a gel holder from the exact same transparency sheets that I used for printing gels, I cut it to size then bent it and pressed that bend with a ruler edge. To mount the gel holder to the flash I pull the diffuser slightly then insert the gel holder and push it with the diffuser, I think the pictures will explain it better.

This is an envelope created from cardboard to carry my gels in

DIY Gel Holder

DIY Gel Holder

Inserting the Gel Holder

Ready and Firing

This article took me a long time to write, so I hope it has been beneficial to you and I am ready to answer any questions you have. My next post will be a break from the flash series where I will discuss RAW vs JPEG, you wouldn't want to miss it. :-) 

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INTRODUCTION TO WHITE BALANCE AND COLOR TEMPERATURES
 As you probably already know, each light source has a different color temperature, tungsten bulbs for example have a warm (more orange) color cast while the day light has a more cooler (more bluish) color temperature. Color temperatures are expressed in Kelvin, so for tungsten lights, the color temperature revolves around 2800K, while for day light it is more like 5200K.

What does this have to do with white balance? Imagine you have a white piece of paper and you're sitting in a room with tungsten lighting, when you take a picture with your camera the paper should look white, now if you take the same picture in a fluorescent lit room, the paper should still look white, are you getting my drift?

The white balance is the way you tell the camera that you are shooting in a certain light temperature, so it can correct the colors in the picture accordingly, otherwise the picture will have all the wrong colors, maybe with an orange tint, maybe with a blue color cast, so setting the correct white balance on the camera is very important to get correct looking skin tones.

SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH GELS?

Now you understand that when you're shooting in tungsten light you have to set your white balance to tungsten and so on, now imagine that you are using the flash in this same tungsten lit room, your picture would have a mix of warm color (tungsten ~ 2800K) and a cool color (flash ~ 5600K), it will look ugly with two color tones like many of the party pictures you see on facebook.

The solution to this is to change the color temperature of your flash to match the main light source (tungsten in our example), it is easier this way since you probably can't change the color temperature of your light source, the other reason is because the flash's color temperature is sort of neutral (white) where you can make it more warm or more cool by adding gels.

One of the very famous gels is the CTO gel, which is short for "Change To Orange", i.e. you will make the flash's color temperature warmer and closer to tungsten light, this way you can set your white balance to tungsten and use both the room light and the flash together without any strange color casts. Another less famous gel color is the CTS (Change To Straw) which is used by Neil VN, this one also changes the flash color temperature close to tungsten. There are a whole lot of gels like 1/2 CTO (less warm than full CTO) and CTG (changes flash temperature to match fluorescent light), and even other colors that can be used to have red or purple backgrounds or whatever, you are only limited by your imagination.

One final thing I want to mention before we dig into the gels is that a warm skin tone is usually preferred to a blue skin tone, that's why many photographers have a 1/4 or a 1/2 CTO gel on their main flash to get a slightly warmer skin tone even though they are only using flashes as their light source and don't have to color match something else.
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RELATED POSTS:

Flash Series - Part 1: Canon Speedlites Chat (580EX II vs 580EX vs 430EX)

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Flash Series - Part 1: Canon Speedlites Chat (580EX II vs 580EX vs 430EX)

Left: 580EX, Right: 580EX II

This post is the first in a series of posts where I will be talking a lot about flashes and their accessories, if all goes as planned I will post about the following:

• Canon Speedlites Overview (430EX, 580EX, 580EX II)
• DIY Gels
• Rogue Grid for Speedlites
• Built-In Wireless Flash Commander Limitations + Ebay triggers
• Lumiquest SB III
• Cheap Chinese Studio Strobes
• Directional Popup Flash Followup

Today I am going to talk a bit about my Canon speedlites, it will not be a purely technical post but rather my story and experience with them, I also made a measly effort at a comparison video, so we'll see how will the viewers respond. Click through for the full story.


580EX II VS 580EX - TECHNICAL SPECS OUT OF THE WAY

If you want detailed and technical comparisons I suggest you read these articles which are very well written and helped me decide to purchase the 580EX II.

• Speedlights.net: 580EXII Review
• The Digital Picture: 580EXII Review

BEFORE I WAS ABLE TO BUY SPEEDLITES

$20 Chinese Flash with Wireless Hotshoe Trigger and No Power Control

When I first bought my Canon G11 and started learning about lighting from David Hobby, I decided to get myself some flashes, and being new to expensive cameras and lighting gear (only bought P&S before) I hesitated a lot to buy a speedlite (which is Canon's name for a hotshoe flash BTW), so I went to the camera store and decided to find manual flashes like the SB-28. I wanted something portable which can work outdoors without power cables, but since they only had new speedlites (read: expensive) and my budget was very limited, the shop keeper convinced me to buy a couple of AC powered (cheap Chinese) studio strobes, one you can see in the picture above, it has no power control but comes with a hotshoe wireless trigger, I would then use this strobe to trigger the other one via it's built-in optical slave, the other strobe is a 100 watt second strobe and has variable power control.

BUYING MY FIRST SPEEDLITE

As you can imagine I was not totally satisfied with these strobes that require AC power and lack fine power controls, so after a while I saved up some money and decided to buy a brand new 580EX II and I went to the camera shop again, as luck had it, I found a brand new 430EX (not the II version, the old one) and a used 580EX (again, not the II version) in a very good shape, and what's more, both flashes cost the same as the new 580EX II I intended to buy. Talk about being lucky.

Now I had two flashes instead of one, and I bought a couple of cheap ebay triggers for them, but of course they only worked in manual mode, no ETTL. I was happy with my combo and never considered the updated versions of my flashes until I sold my G11 and got the 550D, according to my knowledge back then, I should be able to control all the flash settings and custom functions from my camera's LCD, when I wasn't able to do that in the G11 I assumed it didn't support that function, but when I discovered I couldn't control them even with my 550D I started searching and found out that I had to have the updated version of the flash to be able to control it through the camera's menus.

WHY THE 580EX II? WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE 580EX?

From that moment, I knew that one day I will have to get the updated version of the flash, so when my trip to Malaysia approached, I decided that I will sell the 430EX and get the 580EX II, I got a very good price for the 430EX and bought the 580EX II, but after a first failed attempt at selling it (buyer though it was the 430EX II version) I decided to keep it since it is more valuable for me this way, so why did I get the 580EX II?

• I needed two powerful flashes where both can act as master or slave, with the 430EX and 580EX combo, the 580EX was always on the camera with it's output disabled and the 430EX acting as the key light, however with my recent purchase of the 60D this was solved somehow since the camera's popup flash can act as a wireless master (more on that in another post).
• I wanted to be able to control the flash settings and its custom functions from the camera directly, this post written by Syl Arena made me feel it's the most important thing in the world.
• The updated version has 20% faster recycling time, which is incredibly important for me since I usually chase my daughter around trying to get her to stay still for just one second, but as you can imagine I usually fail, so I use my camera with bounce flash in machine gun mode to get the perfect moment.
• Silent charging, you have to watch the video below for this one, the old flashes have an awesome charging sound after they pop (feels like you are using a laser gun) and a continuous beep to let you know they are charged and ready (similar to studio strobes), but sometimes they get in the way when you want to be discreet, so now I have both options.
• Weather proofing, the 580EX II is the only speedlite (to my knowledge) which is completely weather proof, not that I will use it in rain, I have yet to buy weather proof lenses.
• Much better battery door, in the old 580EX I feel like I am going to break the battery door every time I open it, the 580EX II completely fixed this issue, I have to say the 430EX had a much better battery door as well, the 430EX feels like it is the 580EX II cousin more than the 580EX, they have the same padded nylon casing, better battery door and the same updated back light.
• Metal Foot & Sync Port, I don't really care about these features, they are nice to have however.

IS THE 580EX II IS BETTER THAN THE 580EX IN ALL REGARDS?

No, I really miss the direct switch to change between wireless off, master and slave modes on the 580EX, on the 580EX II you have to long press the zoom button and use the dial wheel to set the required mode, one more thing I miss is the better looking back light on the old 580EX. Maybe they could make the charging sound a setting that you can turn on and off?

Syl Arena has compiled a very good wishlist with all the features he wants added to the Canon series of speedlites, and I can only add my voice to him.

NOW TO THE VIDEO

I suck at making and editing videos, so please excuse anything you don't like about this video, and take into consideration that it is my very first attempt, I promise you that I will keep getting better and make better videos in the future.

BONUS: THE MAKING OF - TOP PICTURE

This is a bonus since you came this far, when I attempted to create the picture you saw at the top of the article, I only had the 430EX available, so in order to light both flashes evenly I used the 430EX in a shoot through umbrella, and this is what I got:

Lighting Info: 430EX in a shoot through umbrella

It didn't look as striking as I wanted and the curtains at the back were not the best background, so I used the 430EX with the Lumiquest SBIII (article coming soon) and some white card boards as reflectors to light both flashes evenly, I also used a black backdrop to hide the curtains because although I was using low power, some light spilled to the curtains. It is not the best product picture but it will do for me, below you can see the pull back picture and the final result.

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Intro to Studio Strobes

Lately I've been thinking about doing more setup shots, especially location shots.  Outdoors you usually need more power because of the much brighter ambient conditions, especially with the days getting longer (at least in the northern hemisphere).  In terms of capacity to overpower the sun (even with a large modifier), a studio strobe is much more powerful than hotshoe flashes.  If you don't know anything about strobes, this post is for you.

BTW, strobes can mean different things to people.  I use the term to refer to big flashes.  First, I'll discuss their advantages and disadvantages compared to hotshoe flashes.  Next I'll talk about the main types of strobes.  I'll then discuss the strobe that I'd like to get, then finally I'll talk about remote adjustment options.

ADVANTAGES and DISADVANTAGES

+ Strobes are far more powerful than hotshoe flashes.  An Alien Bee B1600 for example, is approximately equivalent to ten SB-800s or about twenty SB-700s.  On the other hand, sometimes they are too powerful (such as when you want to use a wide aperture to get shallow depth of field).

+ Unlike hotshoe flashes whose flash tubes are recessed in the flash head, strobes have flash tubes that stick out, allowing the light to spread out in all directions, which makes them more suitable for modifiers such as softboxes -- no tupperware needed either. :) 

+ Many strobes also offer modeling lights (i.e., continuous lights that allow you to get a better idea of what the flash will look like).  My SB-800 does have a modeling light but it's pretty weak and pulses like a disco strobe light.

+ Fast recycling time.  An external battery pack for a hotshoe flash can mitigate this advantage somewhat but strobes can fire off shots quickly and take longer to overheat.

On the other hand:

- strobes are generally larger, and they need either an AC power outlet or a separate battery pack (battery-powered strobes being somewhat of an exception). 

- Their upfront cost is also much higher than speedlights although if you try to amass speedlights with equivalent power, using strobes can be more cost-effective. 

- Most strobes can only be used in manual mode (although some battery-powered strobes can operate in TTL mode).  

- No high speed sync (with a few exceptions).

- No zooming.  If you want to change the shape of the beam, you have to change the reflector or modifier.

- Finally, speedlights can have a shorter flash duration than some monolights (again, there are exceptions).  Many monolights also have a longer flash duration when you use less power.

POWER COMPARISON

The power of a hotshoe flash is usually expressed as a Guide Number, whereas the power of a strobe is usually measured in watt-seconds.  Watt-seconds don't convert into guide number because watt-seconds just describe the raw power and says nothing about efficiency and coverage (a large reflector can have a focusing effect like zooming the flash head).  That said, a Nikon SB-800 or Canon 580EXII has about 60 watt-seconds, while a medium-powered monolight like the Alien Bees B800 has 320 watt-seconds of power, and there are strobes with 640 watt-seconds, 1320 watt-seconds, and higher.

TYPES of STROBES

There are three main types of strobes: monolights, studio packs, and battery-powered strobes.

• Monolights (aka monoblocs) have both a flash head and power supply built into the body of the flash.  The body is then connected to a power outlet or to a battery pack.  It is triggered either by a sync cord connected to the camera, an optical slave, or a radio trigger.  Generally, you set the power manually on the monolight itself, although there are options for remote adjustment (discussed below).  Examples include: Alien Bees, Hensel Integra, Elinchrom D-Lite.
• Studio packs (aka "pack and head" or generator) have one or more flash heads connected via cords to a central power supply.  You can set the power level of the flash on the power supply (the better models allow power to be set independently for each flash).  The power supply is then connected to a power outlet or a battery pack.  The advantages of a studio pack compared to a monolight are: the convenience of setting power from the power supply, and lighter flash heads (more stable on light stands) .  The disadvantage is that if the flash heads are positioned far from each other, then they will likely need separate power supplies.  Another disadvantage of studio packs is that if the power supply fails, you won't be able to use any of the flashes.  Finally, studio packs tend to be more expensive than monolights.  Examples include: Broncolor Pulso and Grafit, Profoto AcuteB2 system (here).
• Battery powered strobes are somewhat like studio packs, except that they connect to a battery pack and are designed to be fairly portable (though not as portable as hotshoe flashes).  Some of them have power that's controlled by the head (like a monolight), while others have power controlled by the battery pack (like a studio pack). Examples include: Quantum Qflashes, Elinchrom Ranger RX, Elinchrom Quadra RX, Norman A200C and A400B.

PAUL C. BUFF FLASH UNITS

Strobes can be quite expensive.  One of the less expensive strobe brands out there that nonetheless has a decent reputation for quality is Paul C. Buff, Inc.  PCB makes three lines of monoblocs:

• Alien Bees
• White Lightning
• Einstein

Alien Bees are PCB's entry level flash units.  They have most of the features I care about, such as a cooling fan, auto-dump (to drain excess charge automatically), reasonable availability of flash modifiers, stepless adjustment down to 1/32 power, good triggering options (see below), and excellent customer support, all at the right price.

A step above Alien Bees are the White Lightning flash units.  They're built a little sturdier with aluminum instead of plastic bodies.  In addition, the X1600 and X3200 have a switch that can deactivate some of the capacitors, reducing the power to 1/4th without slowing down the flash duration.

The newest PCB flash unit is the Einstein, which has a lot of cutting edge features:

• The Einstein uses IGBT transistors.  What that means is that unlike analog strobes, the flash duration of the Einstein becomes shorter when you decrease its power (just like hotshoe flashes).   The Einstein can be used in action mode (for faster flash duration) with t.1 durations as short as 1/13,500. 
• Alien Bees have been criticized for inconsistent color at low power.  That's remedied by the Einstein's Color mode, which uses digital technology to give the same color temperature at any power level.
• power adjustment in 1/10th stop increments over a range of 9-stops (down to 2.5ws).
• More powerful modeling light.

REMOTE ADJUSTMENT OPTIONS
Within the last year or so, remote adjustment options for studio strobes, particularly the PCB strobes have increased.

Alien Bees and White Lightning:
Alien Bees and White Lightning strobes can be triggered by radio using the cheap ebay triggers.  However, they also feature an RJ-11 jack (just like landline phones), which allows them to be adjusted remotely in several ways:
- by wired connection via an LG4X 4-Channel Wired Remote.
- wireless radio via Cyber Commander™.  The Cyber Commander is pretty cool system for controlling strobes.  The Cyber Commander can control up to 16 lights and has a built-in flashmeter (!) that can tell you the f/stop of each light or any group of lights.  And if you have an unlimited sync speed camera such as the Nikon D70, the Cyber Commander system will allow sync speeds of up to 1/2500.  A Cyber Commander can also trigger a speedlight but not remotely adjust it (darn!).
- wireless radio via the Radiopopper JrX Studio receiver, and have their power adjusted remotely from the camera's position with either a Radiopopper JrX Studio transmitter or a PX transmitter. An important advantage of the Radiopoppers is that they can also control hotshoe flashes, making it possible to combine both hotshoe flashes and these strobes, all remotely adjusted.
- wireless radio via PocketWizard AC9 receiver, with the power adjusted remotely either by a PocketWizard MiniTT1 or a FlexTT5.  As with the Radiopopper system, this makes it possible to combine hotshoe flashes with these strobes, with remote adjustment capability.

Einstein: 

The Einstein has different triggering options because it's digital, unlike the Alien Bee and White Lightning strobes.
-  wireless radio via Cyber Commander.  What's cool is that the dedicated receiver for Einsteins, the CSXCV*, costs just $30!  *PCB needs a marketing consultant to rename their products...
- wireless radio via PocketWizard PowerMC2 receiver, with the power adjusted remotely either by a PocketWizard MiniTT1 or a FlexTT5.
- as of now, there is no Radiopopper unit yet that can remotely adjust the Einstein.

I'm still debating whether to go with an Alien Bee or Einstein, though I'm leaning toward the latter.  Meanwhile, I'd like to use a multiple speedlight setup first, which I will be discussing next.

RELATED POSTS

1. Multiple Speedlights vs. Studio Strobe.
2. Are you ready for AlienBees?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Syl Arena's Speedliter's Handbook
Strobist.com - A Walk Around the Monobloc
Photo.net - Intro to Studio Lighting Equipment

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