Non-TTL DSLR set up

Finally gone digital after years of shooting on film - and I have to admit, I'm pretty clueless of how to set up my camera for shooting without the security blanket of TTL - particularly for macro shots.

I'm fairly used to shooting manually for wide angle, so that's less of an issue - but any tips for a good starting point for macro shots would be handy - I have to admit I've never flown anything other than autopilot for macro in my life :-)

I have 2 100a ike strobes and one ss50 - I'd assume that a 100a + ss50 would be best combo for starters - perhaps with a home-made diffuser on the 100a and increase the subject to strobe distance relative to the ss50 ??

reccommended F-stop? - shutter speed?

what about other digi specific settings like white balance - I'll admit that I don't even know what this is or means

tha nks in advance guys

First for the F stop, it's macro so you need some DOF so High F stop is critical, I use most of the time around 16-22 as start point.

The shutter speed its almost not relevant to the subject but only for the background, less speed - more blue water, I usually start with 1/125-1/60 check on the LCD the results and make changes according to what I want in the image.

Search a little about the white balance (WB) issue, one suggestion regarding that is to shoot RAW and not JPG so you'll can change the WB and also a little of the exposure later on the computer at home.

I'd use the 100's and not the SS50. You will be using manual and not TTL. The 50 doesn't have variable power control.

It takes some experimentation, but set your power on the strobes so that f/22 is most likely desired exposure. When you shoot, review the histogram. If you not to shoot again, flip the command dial for aperture to either f/19 or f/25. Changing strobe power takes too long. Wider than f/19 and you lose depth of field. Beyond f/22 diffraction reduces detail.

At some point you can pretty much tell where to set strobe power and aperture before you ever fire a shot.