The thing about lighting is that it makes great pictures from cameras that aren't that great in general.





580 ex II is overkill. If you really want a canon the 430 ex II will do just fine. Third party flashes are much, much, cheaper and will do just fine.


You'll need 2 lightstands


2 umbrella swivel adapters


2 umbrellas


Now to connect all that:


I really like the radio popper jrx units. They're reliable, have good range, and are much cheaper than pocketward units. They are only sold on their website. The transmitter will fit right onto the hot shoe on your camera. If you flashes have a pc sync port your golden but if they don't then you'll need a hot shoe to pc sync adapter.


After you've mastered the umbrellas, you'll want to start to look at other ways to modify your light such as softboxes, ringlights, beauty dishes, octobanks, strip lights, etc.....


finally a note about color temperature. The color of natural light changes from location to location. your flashes are always daylight balanced. To the flash's temperature to match that of the ambient or natural light you'll need to use some gels. To match a sunset you'll need an orange one (refered to as a CTO gel and its available in a variety of 'powers' like 1/4, 1/2, or full depending on how strong the ambient light is. For indoors the other common light source is sodium vapoer lights that give off a green cast. for this you'll just need a green gel. Just tape these gels over your flash units to get everything the same color.