Lighting kits

Dan, I own a set of Alien Bee 800s and am very pleased with them. They also offer what they call a digi-bee set that is just one of their Alien Bee 400 lights. I think they are excellent for the money I have invested. Another route you might go is just to get your speedlight off of your camera. I have done several portraits using just my Nikon SB800 or SB28 on a light stand with an umbrella swivel and an umbrella. That is probably the cheapest route to go, especially if you already have a flash. You can trigger it with a cable or via another method, (ie. pocket wizards, cactus V2's) but the cable method will be the cheapest. A friend of mine uses an SB600 on a light stand with umbrella swivel and umbrella for portraits. He triggers his with CLS mode on his D80. You might also look at continuous lighting. Check with others in the forum though for info on those because I haven't worked with the continuous lighting and wouldn't know which direction to steer you on those.