I'm trying to figure out what equipment to get for 3 point strobe light setup. There would be one flash mounted in my hot shoe and two placed in the set. I'm having difficulty understanding how the external flashes are triggered / what radio equipment is needed if any. My desire is to have a TTL flash in the hot shoe that has a radio built in talks to the flashes in the set, I don't want to buy a bunch of receivers / transmitters if I don't have to.

I'm looking at Yongnuo flashes, specifically the YN568 EX II, but overwhelmed by all the different setups / features. My camera body is a canon 5d Mark ii. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I got one of those Aikiphoto studio strobe kits. Its real nice because it comes with three strobes, lightstands, umbrellas, filters, a snoot, barndoors, and a whole bunch of extras. Its a complete little photo studio that packs up into a neat black duffel bag. If you get one of those, definitely keep the cardboard boxes and foam inserts that the strobes come in and remember where everything went in the duffel. Its like a 3-D puzzle. It only goes in there one way if you want to be able to zip it shut.

The light differs ever so slightly from one shot to the next, causing a barely-noticeable flicker which can be reduced in post to the point where its invisible if you get some deflicker software. Some people have recommended Einstein strobes because they are incredibly consistent from one shot to another.

To answer your question, Most studio strobes have a light sensor which detects the flash from one strobe plugged into the camera and sets itself off at the same time. Even a little flash built into the camera can trigger a whole room full of big studio strobes. My kit came with a PC cord, so I just plug the nearest strobe into the camera and let it trigger the others. This works very reliably indoors with walls and a ceiling to reflect the light.

When I took my strobes out into the forest, the light triggers didn't work because all the light from the first strobe went off into the icy blackness of space without reflecting back to trigger the others. I did have to use a radio trigger for that setup. Another place where radio triggers are nice is events where other photographers are shooting with flashes of their own. Sometimes someone else's flash sets off your strobe and its still recharging when you shoot, leaving you without your light. In your case, I think plugging one strobe into the camera and letting it trigger the others with its light should work fine.

Awesome, thanks for answering my question I wasn't sure if there was a IR / Light sensor to trigger the other flashes. Ideally I'd like a radio built into the master flash as well so I wouldn't need to carry extra equipment. However, probably not a must as this is for Real Estate photography / indoor shots. I'd think the flashes would trigger quite easily.

I was looking at this flash for the master. I would put it in my 5Dmii's hot shoe, Youngnuo YN568 http://amzn.com/B00DB21TCM

Then the 2 off camera flashes I'm not sure what to get. I don't need anything fancy as I'd assume the master flash in the hot shoe would control them? Perhaps these?

Youngnuo YN560 http://amzn.com/B00I44F5LS

I have no idea how these things work and there's nobody answering my questions on Amazon :/ Thanks for your help!

Can't say about those little ones. Maybe someone who owns a set like that can answer. Most big studio strobes have a built-in slave sensor.

They do have optical triggers for the slave strobes if those don't have them built-in. I found these things on ebay. They have a light sensor that triggers the strobe when it sees the flash form the on-camera strobe.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hot-Shoe-Wirele ... 2ed36ef8ef

if you have money to burn then go with the radio transmitters otherwise those optical slave triggers sl showed you work like a charm . just out of curiosity i placed my slave flash which has one of those optical sensors at one end of the house and fired my nikon coolpix 950 from the other that's close to 20 meters apart. the reason i used the nikon was it has a rather small built in flash and if the slave triggers with that then it will trigger with anything.