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We report on measurements of the light absorption efficiency of InSb nanowires. The absorbed 70 fs light pulse generates carriers, which equilibrate with the lattice via electron-phonon coupling. The increase in lattice temperature is manifested as a strain that can be measured with X-ray diffraction. The diffracted X-ray signal from the excited sample was measured using a streak camera. The amount of absorbed light was deduced by comparing X-ray diffraction measurements with simulations. It was found that 3.0(6)% of the radiation incident on the sample was absorbed by the nanowires, which cover 2.5% of the sample.