You can use the recovery partition to create an bootable installer with a USB stick or external drive:
Startup the hardware you need an image for from the Recovery HD by holding Command-R when powering on.
Plug in a HFS+ formatted external disk - either partition on an external HDD or 8 GB USB stick.
Select the Re-install OS X Lion option and target the external disk.
Once the Installer finishes downloading, simply shutdown and unplug the disk.
Now when you mount that external disk you will find a directory named Mac OS X Install Data on the root. Inside of this folder is the elusive, hardware-specific, InstallerESD.dmg image. Use disk utility to restore that dmg file to a USB key
But the easiest method is cloning your drive to the new SSD using Super Duper.
so I got my ssd the other day, (Kinston hyperx) and im going to install it this weekend.. The install should be easy for me and I plan on cloning my existing HD to to SSD. I will make my current HD into an external.
After this process what is the best way to back up the drives? I was thinking another external for back ups... Or could my mac drive be used for back ups?
Also what should I leave on my SSD.. I run logic of course with a lot of VSTs and plugins.. what should I run off my SSD and what will be best kept for storage on my stock HD?
Thanks again for bearing with me! Im good using the computer but this installing new hardware is a new territory for me