Beginner-ish Canon shooter - what should I buy?

mjpatey posted a new topic:

Hi, group-



I've been silently reading the blog for a while now, and have tried various DIY-style workarounds to get nice lighting. Just today, I bought a 1,000-Watt dual-head halogen worklamp, which I was going to diffuse with a white sheet or something. Well, even without diffusion, it's not nearly bright enough. With my Canon Digital Rebel XTi and the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens, I shot at f/3.2, ISO 400, and my exposures were around 1/40 second. Just not enough light, about 3 stops shy of what I'd like. I'd love to shoot at f/5.6, ISO 100-200, with a shutter speed of around 1/100 or so.



So... I think I'm ready to bite the bullet and get a couple of flash units.



I'll back up a tad and explain specifically what I want to do... at first, I'm hoping to shoot my own family portrait in my living room in the evening. Down the road, maybe more.



Can I do something nice for $700-800? I'm thinking I'll need 2 flash units, with some sort of diffusion for each, stands, mounting hardware, etc. Or, alternately, would a single nice off-camera flash with diffusion work, if I add a big reflector to cover the opposite side?



I'm just trying to get something I can start and learn with and immediately get decent results without breaking the bank, but something I can grow with and add to later.



Am I being realistic? If you were in my position, what would you buy?



Thanks for any insight you may have!



-Mark