basic studio lighting with 580/430EXs?

I know 'proper' heads are better, but can you get decent results if you use standard camera flashes? I have a 580EXII and have kept my old 430EX for now. Would it be cheaper for me to buy another 1-2 430EXs (pretty cheap now)? Will I get similar results? Can I follow the same guidelines as for proper lighting setups, bearing in mind slower recycling times, maybe more fiddling about etc?

I just haven't seen many (if any) threads on here using camera flashes, everything seems to be alien bees

Everything that you need to know is here .

http://strobist.blogsp​ot.com/2006/03/lightin​g-101.html


And do a search here on POTN and you will find lots of info .

you can do it for sure... strobist should send you spiraling in the right direction - i have been doing one person studio stuff with a 430ex and 420ex, fired by st-e2 - you can see what i have managed with just those (though it could be much better with more resources) on my flickr link below

there was a thread a while back called like "portraits with just one strobe" or something like that - lots of cool stuff people were doing with only one flash off camera

One light thread

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=560444

thanks for the reassurance.

One more question - do I generally ignore ettl for this kind of stuff? its useful for fill and outside etc but most of the strobist stuff seems manual based. Easier to just start off in manual mode? Ratios etc I think I'm ok with, just want to make sure I start off down the right road.

I figure manual probably would be better if I ever go to larger flashes too, right?

if you are doing studio stuff, manual is the way to go, cause your flash output isnt changing with every shot

thanks again.

Think I'll start chewing on the strobist website and a little more on here, and just get on with it.

thats the best course of action, read a little - shoot a little or a lot

heres a sample of what i did with a 430ex and (2) nikon SB28. i had the 430ex shooting through the backdrop, one of the nikon into the Softlighter II and the other into a shoot-thru umbrella. triggered by skyports.

Considering I already have two EX flashes, would it be simpler for me to grab another 430EX and use the IR master on the 580EX to trigger them all? Can still use manual mode like this, and it'll be indoors only so range shouldn't be an issue.