Lighting reality check...

Andrea, I have been using a pair of calumet lights that were fairly cheap and work pretty well. I'm pretty sure they are comparable to AB as far as quality goes. I actually bought them separate at $180 a piece [Strobe, stand, umbrella].

Here'sa link to what I have but this site has several different setups at reasonable prices. They are located in Chicago though so they will ship to you overnight more than likely.

**The prices actually dropped since I bought mine.

I moved my lights back with her and what I got were pretty OK images that felt a lot harder to process because the light was just kind of... ugly. The catchlights being so small really does bother me, too. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I just asked someone on another board to add me to the list for an AB800 that she's selling if the pending sale falls through. I really, really can't buy a studio light right now. I'm INSANE!