two flash photo, what am i doing wrong?

ok im baack thanks everybody for their input. i gave it a go again today, different subject matter, different car. i dont know if my lighting technique got any better, maybe its just the car that makes the pic look good :P

anyways, tear me apart please

sf1 wrote in post #4535205
Could you not also do a longer shutter speed and paint the car using the 580 and 430? I'm thinking a shutter speed of something like 10 to 20 seconds, a ladder and just pushing the pilot (test) button on the back of the flash several times while it is pointed at the car. Lots of trail and error, but it could be fun to.

Dermit wrote in post #4535901
Once you get the exposure 'right' with the flashes you still may have a problem with shooting a black car on a black background. To seperate the subject from the background you need to try and get some 'rim' lighting by triggering a flash or two from behind the car. Maybe even triggering one inside the car may help. But definitely try bumping up the ISO. And I understand cranking the FEC to -1 when shooting a drak subject but you may try playing with that a bit as well to try and get more light.

BINgO !!!

nobody likes the second

2nd one shows the heavy use of flash. Like i said having done "automotive portraits" before, its rare to see even lighting with just two strobes, and it shows in the 2nd pic as an example. You want to avoid those reflections. The 2nd one is much better, but honestly think the photo itself would have been better without flash.

turbodude thanks again for the input, could i see some samples of your work?

e r y k wrote in post #4541550
nobody likes the second

Actually, even though the lighitng and exposure isn't bad, I very much dislike the tilted camera composition. There's no advantage to it, and you have a lot in the image that shows that the camera was tilted.

Maybe the second pic would look better if there was more space between the flashes, i.e., angle them more toward the corners or the car rather than right into the wheels.

Just a thought - I'm surely no flash expert.

Hi eryk,

The back end of the car and spoiler is not lite really well. There are noticable hot spots on the front and rear fenders. I also think JDubya is correct with more spacing between the flashes would potentially produce better lighting and most likely get rid of the fender hot spots and possibly add light to the back end of the car.

You could also try multiple exposures and then merge to HDR.