NOTE: This is Part 1 of 2 (the second will be posted tomorrow)

There is no doubt that 2009 is going to be a year about doing more with less for photographers. Budgets are down for a lot, but that doesn’t mean that expectations from clients are any less. So what better time to cut some weight … here’s how to make your own portable power packs for any of the Alien Bee flash units.

Over the years, Alien Bees have been tossed aside by a lot of photographers as cheap, unreliable, and bottom of the barrel. Its almost taboo to mention them in a room full pros, who each own at least one $5k digital body. A few months ago, after seeing some killer results from peers, I wanted to know more… and come to find out some of the things were way wrong and others work in Alien Bee favor as perfect for lightweight location lighting.

Here’s a quick summary for those who don’t know.

Alien Bees are small plastic shelled monolights that come in progressively heavier 160 true watt/second, 320tw/s, and 640tw/s models. They plug into a typical AC outlet indoors and run off of an inverter connected to a DC power source out on location — this is pretty unique to Alien Bees and is the feature we’ll take advantage of in our weight loss mission. There’s a built in optical slave for those times when your Pocket Wizards aren’t cooperating and a small modeling lamp. Lastly, while I don’t have experience, everyone I talk with says the Alien Bee customer service is top notch.

The naysayers aren’t fans of the plastic (cheap) feel, the slight variations in power output (and white balance), lack of audible beep, and the fact that most people CAN afford to buy them. Alien Bees are also unique, in a negative way for the sports guys, in that their flash durations increase as you decrease power output… counter intuitive I know. 

I’ve shot a lot of brands and styles of location lighting equipment over the years. There are lots of factors to consider when choosing your gear, and no two person’s needs or demands are the same. If you are shooting a lot, you may choose to own a few different set-ups (this is what I do). What a three man fashion shoot might need is way different then a one man ski shoot for example.

With that in mind I pulled together real world data on the most popular options available to photographers looking for battery powered location lighting equipment, so you can see how the DIY Alien Bee packs fit into the mix. I know there are more options (hell there is a more expensive Profoto I could have mentioned if you can believe that) but this sums up the most popular.

There’s a lot of numbers in there, and they are all important. There’s also a lot of information not in there: Recycle times, Total number of pops at full power (re: around 300 for most), Availability of rental equipment, Repair services, Cost of accessories (re: usually relative to cost of unit), Number of heads that can be connected to each battery… you catch the drift. 

Some of those numbers might surprise you too… the T1 (the time required for flash) on the Acute-B and 7b did, I even tested it myself to confirm. The other elephant in the room is the cost vs power that the Alien Bees offer is significant (1/6 the price and 1/2 the weight compared to the Acute-B). Check out the numbers, feel free to correct me if you think I’m wrong, and we’ll move on to the ‘how to’ tomorrow.

Here’s the Alien Bees B800 and the DIY pack: