Hi I have long stayed away from flashes and strobes because I cannot get the flash strength and exposure correct. (My unit has no built in flash but should have all the modern bells and whistles)

Say i want to have a normally exposed face and a really bright strobe from the corner of the room somewhere. What equipment do i need?

I presume I will need a front flash fill firing at a medium strength, and the corner of the room strobe firing at a higher strength ...

I presume I will need control of the firing strength of 2 flash/strobe.

I presume one will be master and one will be slave?

I presume the units will need to talk to the camera regarding exposure/or not?

Someone put me out of my misery :(

PS I don't want to spend more than say $300 just for this effect ... am i out of luck with non Canon stuff?