Dual strobe ratios

Being a beginner, I suspect that I may be barking up the wrong tree, but I'll ask anyway.

I have a 50D in Ike housing and two DS-125's. The manual says to put the strobes on TTL and then select between manual and TTL on the housing and adjust the power there as well. Fair enough. That seems the most versatile option.

Assuming fully manual operation, can I get one strobe to fire at half or quarter power of the other ? If I put one strobe on full power (at the strobe) and the other on 1/2, will they maintain that ratio if I set the power on the housing to say -1 (giving me one at 1/2 and one at 1/4) ?

Does it work that way ? If so, does it matter which strobe has which power ?

I appreciate that I can put the strobes at different distances and/or have one without a diffuser. I'm just trying to get a feel for what options I have available.

Thanks,

Steve.

The Ike housing controls only work with the strobe knobs set to TTL from where, as you correctly say, you can set either manual or TTL. As soon as you set the strobe knobs to anything other than TTL you will get exactly what you have asked the strobes to do irrispective of anything you might select on the housing.

As you say, the housing control will set both the same. If you want a shot where the strobe intensity differs from side to side then you need to go manual on the strobes or for close work pull one further away from your subject.

if you want the most control, you will need to shoot both manual, if the idea is a general grading in intensity, you could also put a diffusor on one or place one strobe further back.