Got new lighting...so I took pictures of my friend's car

Okay so I recently got a new lightstand, umbrella, and a few other goodies. I decided to meet up with my friend who recently got his car running again after a year long hiatus. This is my first attempt ever at shooting with a single off camera lighting source. If you guys notice something please let me know. I am not completely happy with these shots, but I figured I would put them on here to see what comments and suggestions I get.
Thanks Guys...Here ya go

Nice civic, I think there pretty good, they have good lighting. The first one am not to sure about because it only shows the end of the car. I love the last one, but you should crop out the accord, its distracting. What lens were you using?

I was using a 24-70 f.2.8L and a 15mm f/2.8 fisheye on the pictures.

Love the car (i'd like to see what's under the hood!)

1st shot I'd throw out, there's no composition to it, just the back half of the car which just shows me there's a 5 lug swap

Out of all of these, I'd keep #'s 2 and 5 (minus the accord and beer bottle).

I honestly can't tell that you're using a lightsource besides what's already in the parking garage. I'm also not sure that just 1 umbrella would be enough to light an entire car unless you just want to focus on individual items on the car (i.e. a wheel, door handle, misc goodies under the hood, etc)

Post your setup and we can see what we can do with it.

Now that is how a civic should be done.

Looks great.

The first shot is sort of confusing but I love the composition of the others.

Try this single off camera lighting source & see if you like them better:
A few Car Lighting Tips - Updated

Thanks for the comments guys

I wasn't crazy about the first picture, but I was just trying out some different things.

As for lighting:
I currently have a 60" umbrella, 10'8" lightstand, 550EX flash, two pocket wizards, 28"x28" softbox, reflector, and set of grids.

If you need me to I can attach links from BHPhoto so you can have a visual idea of my lighting setup. Or I could just take a picture of all of it when I get home from work tonight.

The accord in that last picture is mine. I will crop it out when I get home and see how it looks. I was just doing a rough edit.

I will get shots of the engine when he finishes the bay.

Justin,

What I always try to do is when shooting a car (or model or whatever) I step back and take a pic of my lighting setup as it's being used. This way others can see what you did and how you can maybe improve.

I'll link you to a few things after lunch.

Thank you very much Justin. I will be sure to do that on my shoots from now on.
If it helps at all, I can set up the lighting real quick how I had it the other night and snap a picture of it when I get home.

2, 4 and 5 are keepers. Maybe the turn the wheel a bit in 2 and 4. As for 4 actually..there's a small piece of your light setup sticking into the picture on the top left corner.

-Justin- wrote in post #4649977
Thank you very much Justin. I will be sure to do that on my shoots from now on.
If it helps at all, I can set up the lighting real quick how I had it the other night and snap a picture of it when I get home.

If you read PhotoGuys thread, you'll see that trying to light your car with a direct flash isn't going to work very well.

I've read several thread on this is the past couple of days. What you have to do is light another surface and not the car.

What you see in the car's paint (unless it's flat) is reflections, so if you shoot a light off of it, you'll most likely not get the result you're looking for and trying to cover the whole car is going to be difficult.

I have a couple of cars I want to take photos of in a few weeks. What I'm going to try is to get my flashes to fire at large sheets of white styrofoam off to the sides of the car. The lit up styrofoam will then reflect off of the car, creating the effect of being completely lit.

It's tricky, because people don't think of the painted surface of a car as a mirror since there's a visible paint beneath it.

To really see the effect, take three pictures. The car with no light, the car with the flash bounced off of it, and the car with the flash bounced off of another close by object.

Pic:
http://libanophotos.co​m/bpul/_MG_5242_800_1.​jpg

Set-up:
http://libanophotos.co​m/bpul/_MG_5244_800_1.​jpg

I'll keep them as links because I don't want Frank (PhotosGuy) yelling at me

Another pic:
http://libanophotos.co​m/Home/yeay/IMG_3889_D​ave.jpg

Set-up:
http://libanophotos.co​m …yeay/IMG_3886_D​avehow.jpg

The composition is kind of boring, but the lighting on the car is actually nice. I would say try shooting outside with the off-camera flash and see how you like those results, especially during sunset/sunrise.

JustinL thanks for those set-up shots, I was actually looking for a couple to get a couple of ideas. I'm actually going to purchase a lightstand, umbrella's, etc this week.

5 lug for the win!!!

i like the shots, however your friend's paint needs a little help