Studio lighting setup question...

[PMatthes]

Okay, I presently have a 40D with a 580EXII. Need your help confirming that this will work.

Over the winter I will be buying either the Elinchrom D-Lite 4 or AB800 kit to practice some studio portraits. From what I've read, either kit does support optical slaving, (hope that's the right term, meaning that if the lights see a flash, they'll fire).

That being said, I should be able to either use:
1.) The 580EXII on-shoe to fire the strobes
2.) The 580EXII being fired from a PocketWizard (or comparable device) to light either the background or hair, as well as firing the strobes.

This setup does make sense, right? I'm sure many use it, but I couldn't find any thread referring to one just like it. And I figured that since either strobe kit supports optical slaving, it would be sufficient.

(...and yes, I know that I won't get E-TTL from the PW... ;))

Any recommendations or suggestions?

[Ty G]

Get a light meter and you are on your way. On the web, I've found various lighting diagrams that match what your are describing. I can't link you to any; adorama has a toutorial section on the site that shows some diagrams, and I think another is "Photoflex lighting school."

[Curtis N]

You can use those combinations as described. If you use the 580EX II on the hotshoe to fire the strobes, it will need to be in manual mode to avoid E-TTL pre-flash issues.

You may also want to consider buying an optical slave to plug into the PC socket of the 580EX II, just to give you another option.

[PMatthes]

Thanks for the help, guys! I thought this should work, but just wanted some second opinions...