I started out buying Speedlites. At first i had a Canon 430ex and then i bought another 2 of these Yongnu 560 Flashes. I also bought a cheap wireless flash trigger (also from yongnuo) so that i could trigger them all at the same time.

http://www.amazon.com/Yongnuo-YN-560-Speedlight-Flash-Canon/dp/B004GZLFHM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351685371&sr=8-1&keywords=yongnuo+560


After a few months i also bought a Octabox for Speedlites.
I'm actually very happy with this setup. I have 3 flashes that i can manually set up and the white balance also isn't a problem.

I also believe that Flashes are way better than using day light bulbs etc. Since the white balance is quite a problem with daylights.

PS: 2 of the Yongnuo Flashes and the wireless triggers cost me about �110

What is budget? How big is your space? Indoor or outdoor? What's the subjects, people or table top objects? You need to give more details of what you intent to use for us to give you better ideas.
You mentioned going cheap, you can get really cheap setup going on e-bay, 3 continuous lights + stands + extras.

Well, I foresee myself eventually getting a lot of gear but as I'm very new to it all I want to start with some simple stuff to allow me to play around and get a feel for setting up and controlling light before plunging into it. I don't have a set space in mind but I have access to a large industrial unit but also rooms in my house. Mainly indoor for now so I can get used to controlling artificial light with table top objects.

I'm confused by what Leaf said. What do strobes do exactly?, I thought your shutter speed was the only factor in stopping motion, ie obviously the more light you have the faster the shutter speed can be.

thanks

I'm confused by what Leaf said. What do strobes do exactly?, I thought your shutter speed was the only factor in stopping motion, ie obviously the more light you have the faster the shutter speed can be.

Hot lights are ... hot.  They make models uncomfortable.  They also give you shots where their pupils are closed down due to the continuous light.  However, what you see is what you get, and you can shoot at whatever settings you like to get a proper exposure.  ie., ISO 100 1/60 at f4 or ISO200 1/120 at f/4, etc.

Strobe lights flash instantly, so the pupils don't have time to react.  They are obviously cool, since they are on for a fraction of a second.   Now, assume you are in a totally dark room (disregard focus issues).  It doesn't matter whether your shutter is open for 1/100 or 5 seconds.  The only light that will be gathered over time is that split second flash.  Now, your aperture will let in more light during that split second, the wider it is open ( and your sensor will be more sensitive, as usual at higher ISOs).  So, shutter speed doesn't matter in this situation.  It just has to be below the sync speed for your strobes (1/160 for AlienBees, for example).

Now, if you are in a room that has ambient, you can't play that game, because you will gather some light from the ambient sources that might cause blur on your model.  But you also might gather enough ambient so you don't have a blown out model and a midnight black background.  You have to weigh the balance.