Completely ignorant, studio question

Okay, I think I am FINALLY starting to understand how the camera works from ISO to aperture... So this is next on my list.

I dont have a flash at all, so really dont know alot about lighting to be honest. But I was thinking of setting up a small little studio setup in my garage or house for shooting the family.

Obviously not being a professional and not wanting to do this much, I dont want to spend alot of money. But I was wanting some pictures with a full white background. Maybe some other colors, but mainly white.

So here are my questions.

1. do I need backdrop stands? or a way to rig them up?
2. is the paper backdrop the best? or should i get cloth or something?
3. is a camera flash like a 430ex or 580ex enough?
4. ultimately, would I want other light in the room? like windows open, etc? Im wondering because if I did in garage, i have some overhead florescent lights, do I want them on? or try and use flash only? or if I set up in living room, would I want windows open and as much light as possible? or again, try and do in dark with camera light only?
5. if flash isnt good enough, are there CHEAP versions of those studio lights? would one be enough or need 2? would i want the umbrella type or other type?

Whew! Well, in my opinion, the first thing you should do is buy a flash to use on-camera. With either the 430ex or 580ex, you can bounce the flash, and there are small modifiers you can play with on the flash for softer, more diffused light. You could then learn how to mix ambient with flash, the advantages and disadvantages of both, and this would answer a lot of your questions about windows and how much ambient lighting you need. Otherwise, the only answer you're going to get is, "It depends..." Sometimes you use the flash to fill shadows. Sometimes you use it as a main light. When using a flash, you typically need some light in the room for focus, but you control how much of that ambient light makes it into the pictures you take by adjusting shutter speed and ISO (along with flash power).

For backdrops, you can use most anything to start with. If you want something other than a wall, seamless paper is cheaper and doesn't wrinkle (like muslin), but you'd need stands to hold it up.

People do portraits with speedlights, and they also do it with studio strobes. Again, there are advantages and disadvantages to both. However, I think everyone would agree that picking up a flash to use on camera would be an excellent first step...and wouldn't go to waste. I still have my old 580EX that I use both on camera and off camera, and I have like 6 studio strobes too. Start with the basics, and you'll soon figure out the direction you want to go and what you need.

I think you should start with the basics, and take it from there. That is, stand, umbrella, a reflector, a decent gun and a trigger. You can do a heck of a lot with that once you get the hang of it, and learn a bit in the process.

White backgrounds are hard at the best of times and you need at least two lights for that, three if it's for anything bigger than a solo head shot (two for the background).

If you set up in your garage, you could make do without background stands by screwing giant metal eye hooks into the ceiling studs and using a metal rod through the hooks to hold seamless. Seamless paper is much better than cloth for me. Depending on what direction your garage door faces, an open garage door gives some amazing natural light and catch lights. You don't want full sunlight streaming in, but when the light is coming from the right direction, depending on the time of day, it is terrific. Depending on how big your garage is, and where the door ends up when it is retracted, you can also nail some large white sheets of foam core to the area just above your background, to bounce your flash off.

oh yeah, and if you go that route, make sure you put something on the end cap of the metal rods so that they can't wiggle out of the eye hooks.