Where am I going horribly wrong?

[RinkRat]

I was hoping someone could help me understand what it is I am doing wrong with this picture. (besides the composition)

I have 3 "Home Depot" lights(all 200w each, my 420EX, and a Silver Car sun visor. In addition, I have a 500w halogen lighting the background.

On the left side of the camera, I have 1 light, on the right, I have the Sun Visor.(hoping to catch some of the flash as a fill in. In the back, on either side of the subject, I have the remaining 2 lights.

Here is the EXIF, the before, & what I was able to do in PS. Thanks for your help!

Camera Model Name
Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
Shooting Mode
Manual
Tv 1/50
Av 8.0
ISO Speed 100
Lens 28.0 - 75.0mm (Tamron)
Focal Length 50.0mm
Image Size 3072x2048
Image Quality RAW
Flash On
Flash Type External E-TTL
Flash Exposure Compensation 0
Red-eye Reduction Off
Shutter curtain sync 1st-curtain sync
White Balance Custom
Color Space sRGB

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze75feo/CRW_4175-A.jpg

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze75feo/CRW_4175.jpg

[IIIMik3]

Well,just a guess...but i'm guessing your camera is metering all that white and is exposing it to be 18% grey. So you need to open up about a stop to a stop and a half. Easy fix is to set the exposure compensation to over expose by accordingly.

[tim]

There's no shadows - it looks to me like you're blasting way too much light at him. That's just a guess though.

[TBoyd]

Check the settings on the 420EX & be sure it is set to E-TTL. The original picture appears that the flash put out very little light. Do you have an option to turn off auto reduction of fill flash?

Try changing the Av to 5.6 if the above doesn't help.

[arumdevil]

I don't really pay too much attention to the light meter on my 300D (Drebel), If shooting in Manual mode I will use the meter to get in the right area and then take a shot, look at the histogram, and adjust settings accordingly.

[RinkRat]

Well,just a guess...but i'm guessing your camera is metering all that white and is exposing it to be 18% grey. So you need to open up about a stop to a stop and a half. Easy fix is to set the exposure compensation to over expose by accordingly.
I didn't even think about the fact that almost the entire setting was WHITE!
I guess that is what I bought the Grey card for??? I'm such a tool. :o

I'll also check on the other suggestions made.

Thanks everyone.

[Hellashot]

Av 8.0 might be a bit high for a portrait. Maybe try something near 3 or 4 if you can. And underexposing an image is always better than overexposure.

[RinkRat]

Av 8.0 might be a bit high for a portrait. Maybe try something near 3 or 4 if you can. And underexposing an image is always better than overexposure.
Thanks Hellashot, I will try that out next time.