Starting a Lighting Setup

[Mother Goose]

I've always been more of a city and landscape guy, but lately, I've been getting more interested with learning the ins and outs of lighting and portraiture photography -- especially with my current hobby of working with the university paper.

At the moment, I have only a 420EX flash, and it has served me well. I use this with a Rebel XT at the moment, but I'll be upgrading to a 40D in the near future. However, what I want is a portable setup (I'm currently living as a student in a foreign country). It must be light and minimalistic -- probably 1-2 light stands/umbrella and that's it.

What do you recommend? I want something that I won't be replacing (I know how it is with camera gear). At the moment, the lack of manual control on the 420EX doesn't bother me with FEC, but will that be a problem if I look for a setup using the 420EX as a slave?

 

[Mother Goose]

Nobody? I didn't think it was that unusual of a question.

Should I get a 550EX and use that with my 420EX in infra-red mode? Or should invest in a bunch of cheap flashes to use with PC connection. Or radio connection?

What do you suggest?

 

[Mother Goose]

Nobody?

Someone from FredMiranda suggested I just get a 580EX II. This seems to be the easiest (albeit costly) method. What I'm wondering is, (1) Will the lack of manual on the 420EX limit me, and (2) is it cheaper/better to go with say, radio or PC connections and cheaper non-Canon flashes.

 

[Treesie]

I have the 430EX and 580EX. I've only used one and haven't used a master & slave setup so any feback would be interesting.