OK, this is a simple modification to attach Flashpoint II light modifiers to a Alien Bee. You may ask why? Well my first studio strobes were Flash point 620 units, as I hadn't discovered Alien bees. The flashpoint did me well, but I had one unit burn out. They are a little bulky which I did a lot of location shoots an they were kind of a pain to lug around. So I decided to upgrade to Alien Bee 1600, which are 1/2 the size and twice as powerful. Though I can get speed rings to use my softboxes, I still had a beauty dish and snoot which I couldn't use. So I thought I would go and seek out a DIY solution to connect the two. I was lucky to find just the right fix. See the Video to view the Adapter.What was needed.
1 NDS 4" adapter (Found in the irrigation isle at Home Depot) $2.50
1/4" hard board or MDF $2.50
Tools
Utility Knife
5" Hole Saw
3 1/2" Hole Saw
Glue to connect wood ring to 4" adapter
This is a very clever mod but it will not work correctly. A beauty dish requires the flash tube to extend into the dish so that when it fires it sends light onto the parabolic arc of the dish sideways 360 degrees. If the flash tube is subducted or firing through a tunnel or snoot essentially and bouncing off the central beam blocker then back on the dish you will not get complete coverage and you will loose efficiency.
ReplyDeleteIf you photograph the dish when emitting light with the flashpoint head attached and the AB attached you will notice a very different illumination of the dish. Same goes for trying to use a speedlight in a beauty dish. The physics don't match up. The speedlight only kicks light forward not laterally (like firing through a snoot. You need lateral light to utlilize the beauty dish fully.