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[fstopg]

I have searched, read and confused myself to no end so I am going to take a stab at it here. First off I have just recently made the switch to digital and I am glad that I did. Also I have learned more from lurking around here for the past few months than I have on my own over the past few years.
My wife and I are expecting our first child in June and I want to be able to have a home studio by then. Currently I have two flashes, the 430EZ and a 540EZ (from my film body). My question is what would be the easiest way to use what I have to set up a home stuido? Would I just be better of getting the AlienBees beginer kit. Right now I am looking for the lowest cost method to get started so that I can learn. Thanks for any advice and sorry that this was so long winded.

[swjim]

Since you already have a couple of flashes I would read the Lighting 101 on Strobist to get an idea of how much you can do with them before investing in too much more gear. http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101.html

[kuanyu]

Personaly the AlienBees seemed easyer to learn but many have done fantastic jobs using the Stobist meathod.

[Wilt]

Studio flash has modelling lights. These permit you to SEE in advance, without ever taking a shot and pixel peeping, what your light set up should look like. A speedlight setup will never do that (advance preview) for you!

So if you are learning, learning is done better with constant lights or modelling lights. Once you have learned, you can apply your learning to speedlights to much better effect because you will know in advance (by experience) what placement and intensity balance will do for a portrait sitter.

[Curtis N]

Your two flash units both have adjustable manual mode and are compatible with optical slaves, so they will both work well off-camera, provided you have a way to trigger them.

My suggestion is to buy stuff that can be used with proper studio lights if/when you decide to upgrade. A couple good light stands ($40 range or better, not the economy model), and a couple white convertible umbrellas around 42". This stuff will work with studio strobes if/when you get that far.

Add a couple umbrella adapters to mount the flash units on, a hotshoe adapter & sync cord for one flash and an optical slave sensor for the other. This will make a very workable 2-light setup for less than $200.

[fstopg]

Thanks for the info. I am going to look into one of the Strobist kits (seems to be the least expensive option right now) I still have a few months to get all the bugs worked out. Thanks again.

[nadtz]

The point behind the strobist blog is particular to easily portable, inexpensive, reliable lighting. If you don't have to worry about the easily portable part, studio flashes may work out to be less expensive by the time you factor in batteries/battery packs for lights that will never leave the house.

That said depending on your power needs a couple flashes used off camera could easily suit your needs until you figure out exactly what you want in a home studio setup. With your stated budget Id grab a couple flashes off of ebay and go from there, but thats really up to you.