3 different flash setups, which to go for?

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So I am getting a flash setup mainly to be used for automotive photography but no doubt I'll find other needs for it.

I really can't decide between these three setups -

Nissin DI866 as master unit
Two Canon 430 EX II's as slave units

Or

Three Nissin DI866's, one as master and 2 as slaves

Or

Canon ST-E2 to trigger (the downsides to this unit vs triggers don't really put me off), plus the place I have to buy from doesn't sell Yongnuo triggers)
Two Canon 430 EX II's as slave units


Basically I want two off camera flashes but can't decide on the best way to go?

Any help/advise will be greatly appreciated!
 
What conditions are you planning to shoot in?

The Canon near IR system works brilliantly indoors, with lots of surfaces to bounce off and low ambient light levels and small distances. Remove the walls, turn up the ambient light level and it'll struggle to communicate. If you want reliable triggering get some radio triggers. Price leans toward a set of YN622's and a TX to match, but other systems are available.
If you want 3 flashguns and you can do without HSS I'd suggest:
1 YN622c-TX
3 YN622s
3 YN565ex
(probably cheaper than your options too even though it's 3 speedlights)
But as always, I'd be more concerned as to how you'll soften these light sources for decent car images.
 
Mainly shooting outdoors Phil, it appears I'm even more of a novice with lighting than I thought.

Wasn't aware I had to worry about softening the light?!

I was planning on mounting each flash onto a small light stand and just firing away?!
 
Original Poster said:
Mainly shooting outdoors Phil, it appears I'm even more of a novice with lighting than I thought.

Wasn't aware I had to worry about softening the light?!

I was planning on mounting each flash onto a small light stand and just firing away?!
Click to expand...
If you do that, you'll just end up with glare - splodges of white or near white reflections of the light source on the curved surfaces of the car.
The only way to avoid (or at least minimise) this is to use very large diffusers, which make the light source much larger.
But your hotshoe flashguns won't have anywhere near enough power to have any effect in bright light, which will limit you to shooting pretty much when it's dark.
 
Original Poster said:
Thanks Garry.

I should have confirmed, this setup is to be used only when it is getting dark or actually dark.

Based on that will the flashes light up the car properly?
Click to expand...
Yes, that will work, but with limitations.
The main limitation is that you will need really big diffusers. Softboxes are the obvious choice - something with contours as irregular and complex as a car will require the biggest you can get, something like 150cm (octagonal or rectangular) and no single hotshoe flash will be able to light that evenly because of the built in reflector, which pushes all the light forward and which, even on the widest zoom setting, will only light a part of the inner diffuser. Fitting a diffuser on the flashgun, e.g. a Stofen, will help to some extent but won't be perfect.

If you have either mains power or a battery/inverter available, using studio flash heads would be a much better option - apart from the massive difference in power, studio flash heads (except for the junk ones) don't have a built in reflector and so can light a large softbox properly.

If you don't have mains poer or a battery system, you'll need a powerful portable flash solution, which has all the qualities of studio flash.

Be aware that even with the very best lighting equipment, you will only be able to light a small part of a the car at a time, most of the work done will be in PP.
 
Further to what Garry said, to mitigate the amount of power required, make use of the lack of natural light around dusk, it'll make it much easier to balance a sky, and you can also take advantage of a night lit cityscape or industrial scene as a background.
 
Shoulda said (you can do that with speedlights quite easily)
 
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