A moment about portraits...

I have been pouring over books and the interwebs looking and delving into the use of strobes and off camera flash.  Now, I am not opposed to flash.  I think it should be looked at as just another tool to achieve a desired look.  After all there is no photo without light, and in the absence of light we have to introduce some.

I have the standard flash units, but I broke down an purchased a set of studio strobes.  I received the box much as a child rips into the paper on Christmas.  I had the lights set up in about ten minutes with the umbrellas attached, and then waited for the correct subject matter to strike me.  Thankfully my wife and daughter arrived home just in the nick of time.

I wanted to comment on this as there is something I noted in most of the "instructional" sets for the use of off camera flash or strobes.  In almost all of the posts I noticed that there was something missing.... the light settings.  Now I understand this is dependent on each situation, but why can't someone give a starting point to go from.  I messed with the strobes and noticed a decent set up that should save a lot of time ext time to set up.  Main light - 3/4 to full, fill  around 1/2, hair light 1/2 to 3/4.  That is all I did... and fired away.