Want to expand lighting. Thinking strobe/ ringflash

I got some advice before which was good. I have been researching and thinking.
I want to add to my lighting.

I currently own a 580 exii and 430 ex. I have 2 umbrellas, and a reflector.

I want to be able to do some outdoor family portraits, indoor family portraits, and most importantly some sports portraits.

I'd like to invest in maybe an alienbee. What would suit me? Just a simple unit or how do you like the ring flash unit?

Can you use the flashes as slaves with the alienbees?

The ringflash is okay, but it gives the funky catchlights if you use it for portraits which isnt always what you might want. Mixing alien bee and speedlites is a bit of a challenge. The bee is so much more powerful that the speedlites are relegated to things like accent lights and hairlights. How do you mean the flashes being slaves to the alien bees?

That was my concern with ringflash. And that was exactly what I was wondering if I can use the flash as accent/ hair lights if I only buy 1 alien bee for now.

abbypanda wrote in post #15766184
That was my concern with ringflash. And that was exactly what I was wondering if I can use the flash as accent/ hair lights if I only buy 1 alien bee for now.

You can do a lot with a single strobe, perhaps more than you can with a single speedlite simply because you can get very large modifiers for softer light. Add a reflector for fill and its more versatile than you might imagine at first.