UPS brought me my 430EXII yesterday!!! testshots

#5 is pretty good for a first try. The rest really look more like you used the built-in flash.

really?

i tried to keep the ISO down under 300, i must've not fireing it at full power

Were you using a diffuser? Were you firing straight at it or firing upwards at a diagonal? If you just fire straight at the car with nothing to bounce the light (except the car), you're really just getting a more powerful glare. You get more light in the picture but it'll still be fairly harsh.

The key to shooting at night is to either bounce light off a wall or ceiling (if you have single flash on camera) or use a remote trigger to fire the flash from an angle different from the camera (ie, move the flash off camera). Firing a flash into the open sky isn't going to do much unless you diffuse it to soften and spread the light around the subject.

Get a 580II, another 430 and some umbrellas/stands for some real fun. Dropping 50D body $$ on Speedlites seems crazy at first, but it lets you get into some pretty fun stuff.

#5 is a good start.

Clean that car!!

As others have said.. #5 is your best one so far.. clean that car!!!

CorzyPhoto wrote in post #7600442
As others have said.. #5 is your best one so far.. clean that car!!!

i really like that one as well, it was a spur of the moment thing, my flash came and i called up the first person i knew with a white car lol