i am looking a lighting setup what do you recommend?

One light, one light modifier and a reflector....and you are golden.

Dont get fixated on the brand name......get whatever your budget allows you and learn to use it.

Using speedlights as source of lighting is not a bad idea. You can plug your camera flash direct to mains or wall socket using Tronix SpeedFire for faster recycling time.

i enjoy mono lights with battery pack, slightly more expensive then speedlights tho. brand doesn matter too much. Reflector is a must!
on the cheap can get speed lights, yn 460II and some chinese triggers. 100 bucks for wireless flash, and many people do great with that set up.
people produce alot better images then me with that set up.
and i got an semi expensive E640, cybercomander, VB mini set up. but I enjoy my set up, a ton more then my speed lights and I use it more than i ever used speedlights.
it comes down to what you enjoy in the end.

i would go to mpex, get a v5 set, and a light stand, umbrella adapter, and umbrella, and a 15 dollar 5-in-1 reflector, and get playing with your 430ex II

My purpose was very similar to yours, some lights to get better shots, and to get more options than just my 580EXII can provide. My budget didn't offer any of the Calumet or AB lights that come so highly recommended. I ended up going fairly cheap.

http://www.amazon.com …d=1306852536&sr​=8-1-fkmr1

These strobes are made by westcott, and I'm actually very happy with mine! They're not going to be great studio lights or provide me a complete out door on location setup, but the results I get are great:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ephur/559733343​0/

that is a pretty good home studio set up for 500 bucks! 3 soft boxes 2 umbrellas is about 200 bucks if you buy Chinese like me xD, so thats like 100 bucks a strobe + stands, only 1/4 to full power but still, that sounds like a great setup for the money.

Yeah and the soft boxes are pretty nice, they are not as nice as some I've seen but they do have the inner baffle, unlike some of the real cheep ones I've seen that don't have an inner baffle to really soften it up! I also like that at the end of the day these are at least 'backed' by Westcott, so there's a little piece of mind haha

what brand are those soft boxes?
i use photodiox , or fotodiox, not sure how it spell, it is really nice though, has inner baffle, was 40 bucks shipped from amazon, really nice quality for the price! no need for starters / hobbyist to get the 150 dollar softboxes

It's two of these: http://www.photobasics​.net/details.cfm?id=16​3

And one of these: http://www.photobasics​.net/details.cfm?id=16​5

Three of these of course: http://www.photobasics​.net/details.cfm?id=r&​itemnum=790

They are all made by Westcott. I've felt both cheaper soft boxes (and ones that are completely w/o inner baffles) and I've felt ones that are a little nicer too, but the price was pretty considerable, and you factor these were free with a $500 kit, the value was great

oh wow! it is actually a westcott product, i must of skipped over that in the first post.
i would feel much better buying these then the no-name/ cowboy studio kits a lot of people get
these got a name behind them, which is good!
that seems like a great way to get into studio work, a whole studio for 500 bucks :O.
very cool!
seems like the perfect kit for the hobbyist/ small home studio!

I like that strip box. I am using an umbrella for my key and don't plan on changing it but would like to add a hair light with a strip box. That looks like just the right thing.