Advice with Studio lights and 1st shoot

[FSon2]

Hi, I just bought my some Alien Bees studio lights after talking to a few photographers about brands and what kind of equipment to buy and now even more lost now that I have them and have a few people that what portraits to build for their modeling portfolio, but confused to quite some degree.

Studio Equipment
2 - AB 800 Watts
1 - AB 400 Watts
3 - 10 ft stands
3 - 7AB/R Standard 7-inch Reflector
2 - silver white umbrellas
2 - translucent white umbrellas
1 - 20 degree grid
1 - Sekonic L-308S light meter

Camera and Lenses
Canon Rebel XT
Canon 50mm 1.4 USM
Canon 16-35mm 2.8L USM

What I've figured out so far is that i want to use 1 AB 800 for a main light, the other AB 800 one for a fill light and the AB 400 for a hair light or background light. I know that I probably would want the aperture of the main light to be 1 or 2 stops higher then the fill light and the hair light should be the same aperture as the fill light. But what aperture should I get the main light to be??? F8?? F11?? F5.6?? I know I probably want an ISO of 100 but what about shutter speed, does it make any difference what it is and is there a minimum shutter speed I'm aiming for? Or is there just a general shutter speed portrait photographers usually shoot at???

Then comes my confusion with the lights, how far do you think I should have them from the subject and how close should the umbrella be to the flash unit? And should I use the 7AB/R Standard 7-inch Reflector that goes on the studio light?? And whats the difference between the silver/white umbrellas and white translucent ones??? If anyone could make a suggestion on a setup that would be GREATLY appreciated and if should get more things like a softbox possibly? Or do you think I'd be fine with the 2 umbrellas and which ones i should use, because i think I'm going to use the grid for the background light/hair light.

[tim]

Have a read of the book thread in my sig, the "lighting magic" and "posing for portrait photographers" books shoudl help.

Shutter speed makes no difference, use 1/125th so the lights sync. ISO100 is good. Set your aperture for the visual effect you want. The closer the subject is to the light source the better it wraps around, the softer the light, and generally the better the lighting. Get the light source as close as you can without it being in the frame. Or clone it out if you want it really close, but that's a lot of work.

You have a massive amount to learn. You can learn by trying things out and see what happens, or get those books I recommend, they'll give you a great head start.