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been a while since ive been on here, ive been busy with most of my spare time going into nighttime photoshoots for other people but last night i had some free time to experiment. i wanted a pic to use for the "about me" section on my site, was a last minute decision last night to go out and give it ago. i ended up leaving home at 11:45pm and was fairly tired which shows in the picture quality.

would like some feedback on how to improve the picture quality the photos where taken with my 450d, 50mm 1.8II lens, and using 3 vivtar 285hv's for lighting. the underground carpark was fairly well lit aswell.

i havnt had the vivitar flash's for very long and am still in the trial and error stages in learning how to use them to my advantage

the things i would already change is use an umbrella (it was windy so decided not to use it) and give the camera more eye contact.

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i wanted a high contrast black and white photo, but the more i look at the colour i prefer that

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Hi there,

By and large, these images appear to have worked. but the primary issues that you're struggling with here are the balance of the lighting, and the shadows that the lights are producing.

In the first and third, look at the harsh shadow across your neck and legs. You've placed a light behind you, to your right, and without the benefit of the brolly, it's producing quite harsh light which is resulting in these shadows. The area of light on your face from this flash is also bordering upon being blown, which suggests to me that you should reduce the power of this light as well as working to increase the diffusion here.

In the second, I'm again seeing too much power, and too much harshness in the light. Look at the shadow from your arm as it falls across your left leg, and then look at the residual shadow of the car door to camera left. And the lighting in the interior of the car has just about totally blown that part of the image.

I hope that this doesn't sound like I don;t like these images, because that is not the case; I do like what you've done here; you've struck an air of arrogance in the first and third, which does, I think, work quite well. While the better eye contact would work, it would also destroy that effect. That's neither a good nor a bad thing, but merely something to be aware of for when you reshoot. Make sure that you cover both scenarios, to give yourself a better choice from which to select.

I think that the second image works very well as well. Good pose and angle, just needs more work with the lighting.

cheers for the feedback,

i can see what you mean with the harsh lighting, my positioning of the strobes was all wrong aswell i should have dropped the power levels and used the f/stops to alter the lighting. you can get a fair indication of the photos from the LCD screen but you can really see the whole thing until you get home and see it on the computer.

next time will be better for sure. i think a 4th flash in number 1&3 would help aswell to balance the amount of lighting as im still trying to light up a bit of the car aswell and i dont think the 3 flashes were enough. either that or positioning them further away to spread the light out more.

alot more testing to come though and ill post up the progress.

auxr8220 wrote: you can get a fair indication of the photos from the LCD screen but you can really see the whole thing until you get home and see it on the computer.

Actually, the LCD can be very useful, once you learn how to use the histogram. The image itself, as displayed on the screen, should not be used by you to assess exposure. Composition, light placement and correct focus: sure, but for exposure, throw the histogram onto the screen. You want to get the graph to tend somewhere towards the middle, rather than congregating at one end or the other.

In the case of your images here, I would expect to see it tending towards the left of the middle, because there's a fair bit of darkness in the images. That is perfectly acceptable, provided you're not falling off one end or the other.

next time will be better for sure. i think a 4th flash in number 1&3 would help aswell to balance the amount of lighting as im still trying to light up a bit of the car aswell and i dont think the 3 flashes were enough. either that or positioning them further away to spread the light out more.

Spreading the light will help, as will perhaps the use of some reflectors and diffusers. Remember to account for the light falloff as you do this though; that will also potentially affect your aperture settings, so just keep these factors in mind as you play and grow.

alot more testing to come though and ill post up the progress.

And we will all be looking forward to seeing your progress as you learn and improve.

I have always wanted to do this! Nice work and I agree with Gary's detailed feedback.

Did you try lightpainting your car while the subject stands still in the foreground and lighting the portrait seperately after moving the car from the scene? The light on the car would be softer and you will have more control over the rest of the lights. Also try a softer source for your key light in the portrait to see what effect that produces. [beauty dish perhaps] It would be impossible for a self portrait however.

I think the LCD is useful for determining REALTIVE lighting levels in a scene [esp if you don't have a light meter] This is independent of the histogram function.

any thoughts?

with my development im trying to steer away from lightpainting. it was a bit of fun and got my business out there in the car scene of adelaide. im still doing lightpainting photoshoots for those that want them. but i want to move on to strobist shoots now.

i played around with the camera and found the histogram, i see what you mean and this will give me something to look to next time.