Studio or Speedlite for lighting?

[Emington]

I do mostly portrait and still life photography and I'm looking to learn about lighting but I was wondering whether to just go into studio lighting or just get a flash gun?

I was looking at this? Or would I need more that 1 flash to start of with?
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=624885

[tim]

Speedlites are expensive for what you get. If you're working in a studio get studio lighting. If you work on location get speedlites. A 580EX can take a Canon battery pack which helps recharge time, but remember use them too hard and they'll burn out. Good studio lights can fire all day as they're fan cooled, and they have a bunch more power than Speedlites.

[sdipirro]

I don't see any external flash in your equipment list, and I'm wondering if this means you've been using the on-camera flash for all your flash photography so far. If so, adding a hotshoe flash can open up some new possibilities, even if you create a beginner studio. You can take it with you "on location" and also use it as part of your studio. I keep my 580EX in my camera bag most of the time, but I'll also use it in my "studio" as a background, fill, or hair light in combination with my Dlite-4 strobes. So it's a nice thing to have in any case. Next step is to move the flash off camera to get more interesting lighting than you can get by even bouncing the hotshoe flash. I started by moving my 580EX off camera, onto a stand with an umbrella, just to start experimenting with that. Then I started adding studio strobes, different modifiers, and other stuff to create a small home studio that I can assemble or tear down in a matter of minutes (I share the space with my 8-year-old son!)...but I also have the portability to take some of the gear with me for on-location shooting...just not as elaborate as what I can do at home now. It's good to keep an eye on the future as you start accumulating gear, but starting simple is the way to go, I think.