Speedlites and ST-E2 communication

I recently bought some speedlites (a 430ex, and a 550ex) as well as the transmitter. I was unaware of the difficulty of using IR transmission. My flashes rarely fire and it is really frustrating. Is there something I can do to make this set-up more reliable, or do I have to buy radio transmitters. If so, can I even use a radio system to trigger my speedlites?

Are you using it outdoors? Are you turning the bases of the flashes so they face the trigger?

Like 'Hoff says, it's best to turn the receiving (base) part of the flash towards the transmitter. Outdoor range is far less than indoors, where you can at least bounce the signal off walls, etc.

If you really need the range - and outdoors especially, a radio trigger is the way to go.

That's just the nature of the beast with wireless TTL. If you've already got the TTL strobes anyways, you may want to consider Radio Poppers

ST-E2 works very well indoors even triggering speedlights inside umbrellas. Outdoors it is unreliable in full sun. Shooting in the shade eliminates this problem. If you have to try and shoot in full sun bring the camera as close as possible to the speedlights.

The ST-E2 is so light it is a joy to use - particularly for quick shots when you don't want to shoot manual. Check your batteries (ST-E2 and speedlights) if you are having problems. The ST-E2 battery while of old design lasts for months.

The one thing I really like about the ST-E2 is that it doubles up as a very portable focus assist beam... Slap one atop the camera and you can AF in pitch black.

Radio triggers are the way to go for what you describe. All radio triggers will fire your flashes, but most will only do so in manual or stroboscopic mode, not in ETTL since they have no way to communicate the e-ttl info to the strobe.

Radiopoppers give you radio and TTL - they encode the preflashes which carry the e-ttl info, send it via radio to the receiver which then turns it back into light and communicates it to the receiving flash. You also keep HSS this way. Might be your best option.