shooting in the shadow of trees

i was trying to shoot in daylight under a tree so the light and shadows would make the photo look horrible, using a softbox i tried to overpower the shadows and make the subject (me) stand out and be well lit. i guess its basic lighting technique but i felt i needed to master this. please any CC is welcome, i did this alone so it was a bit difficult to get the camera to focus properly but i think it might have been ok in this shot.

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Well, the focus certainly looks good on this scaled version. The aperture of f/11 probably helped a bit, as did the subject to camera-distance.

The general feeling is a bit weird though. You look like it's evening or early night, but your surroundings say "bright daylight" (blown out rooves in the background for instance), this gives the image the feeling of being faked.

The lighting looks awkward to me - the location does not add anything to the photo. One thing about photography is knowing what to leave out - if you feel it doesn't help the picture, then leave it out. Were you going for a dramatic lighting approach? If it were me, I would have picked a different location and cropped tighter.

this shot was done solely in an attempt to overpower shadows and highlights created by a tree, for technical practice, i was hoping to get some more input on the actual lighting vs the composition, this is my backyard so it was convenient to shoot for practice getting the light set at the proper intensity to evenly light me. the composition was really not important to me at the time but maybe next time i will try to compose better.

id like to know what you guys think of the actual quality of light on the subject, vs the quality of light in the background and what i can do better to match them more properly. i do not own a meter and do not know how to use one.

edit: about it being "faked looking" i kind of was going for a severe separation of background and subject which may have created that effect, and i rather like the effect somewhat

well, generally, you wouldnt shoot under these conditions and expose completely black, non-detailed shadows, its hard to critique a technique that wouldnt be used, hence the suggestions

you dont want your shadows to be completely black, so you may raise your shutter speed to compensate, you have to balance subject/background lighting.. you really ought to get a light meter, it takes out the guesswork

get to a real location with a real background, and it will be easier to "learn" how to create a properly balance image, simply because you want to, not because you have to

edit: if you like what you are doing and achieved what you were going for, then there is no point in asking for critique

thanks for pointing out the bit about the shadows being too dark, that is something i overlooked, i guess the background is too distracting so i will have to rety this at a more sutible location. getting a meter is a high piority for me but unfortunately right now its not within my budget so i am trying to do the best i can without it for now

what i meant was i liked the separation created between foreground and background but i do need some advice on how to control the light better, thank you

I think the content of the background is irrelevant and that as an exercise you've done perfectly well. The one thing that seems a little off to me is the color balance. Have you ever gelled in these circumstances before ? Or perhaps the color balance of the whole scene is off.

there are cheaper light meters that do the trick.. the sekonic L-308 is fairly priced around 200, can be had for less used, check ebay

its well worth the investment once you can afford one