My main photography subjects are sports and wildlife so studio lighting isn't my strong suit.

I've been approached to take portraits and I'm a little hesitant because of my lighting equipment. I've got two Canon 580EXII flashes and Luminox soft boxes. I'd like to invest in an Alien Bees light kit but I'm not in a position to make such an investment at this time.

My two main concerns in tackling this job is a) will the two hotshoe flashes serve me well as studio lights and b) asides from having a handful of batteries in my pocket any suggestions on a longer lasting power source for these flashes? I'm looking at taking anywhere from 50-75 group and individual portraits.

I've thought about getting one of Canon's battery packs but you're half-way to the cost of a AB kit if I buy one for each flash.

You've got enough power to take the portraits, just practice using the e-TTL system it's not very intuitive. Alternatively shoot manual flash, which would be easier/quicker to master for static sessions, more fluid sessions it's better to use e-TTL in my experience.

When using e-TTL set your camera to manual it takes some of the guesswork and headaches out of figuring out what the hell the system thinks it's doing!

90% of my lifestyle/portrait photography is done using Canon flash lights. I've put set up info on my Flickr along with images if you want to take a gander.

Another place to pick up a lot of info is the Strobist site (strobist.com) and also Neil's dg28.com

Thanks. I thought it would be enough, just need the re-assurance.

I'm used to shooting manual flash and just never got the hang of e-TTL. I just never have felt comfortable using a flash any other way.

I will check out the sites you've mentioned as well as your Flickr site.

Thanks again.

For portraits I'd suggest putting the flashes in M mode for better shot-to-shot consistency.

I shot 300+ headshots for a church directory with a pair of 580ex with diffusers. Fill was on a camera bracket 8ft away (my preferred shooting distance for flattering perspective) with the key light 5-1/2 feet away, 45 degrees from the nose (whichever way it is pointing) and a foot or so higher than than the eye line for a flattering short lighting pattern: light in both eyes with the key light defining the front "mask" of the face with highlights.

I put both flashes at 1/2 power. Because the key light is closer making it 2x brighter than the fill it overlaps the 8ft / 5.5 ft difference results in a 3:1 lighting ratio (2k+1f: 1f) = 3:1 Exposure is always f/8 @ ISO100 with that set-up because the flash power and distance are always the same. I can set up and be shooting in a few minutes.

I use the DIY diffusers shown below because they don't block the sensor of the slave flash, which allows the Canon wireless system to work as designed, with the sensor on the slave not blocked by a softbox or umbrella and able t to react to the visible pre-flash commands from the main flash head of the master 580ex (there's no IR involved).