Lighting/Shooting Assistance

[Hedgehogfromhell]

Hi Guys/Girls,

I've recently been playing with my Speedlite and decided to have a first attempt at night shooting and manually strobing the subject. In the end i have come up with this shot:


Strobe Storm by co1856, on Flickr

Whilst i'm quite happy with the overall lighting on the subject, but really miffed about the clouds. To me, they ruin the shot..

So, my request for assistance is - How can i rectify the issue with the clouds (other than shooting with no clouds in the sky) and what would you do to improve the shot overall?

More of a teaching thread i guess...

 

[Phil V]

Do you know what's going off with the clouds?

It's typical long exposure. The only cure is to shoot with a shorter exposure which won't give you time to light paint the car, so the solutions are simple:

• Multiple flashes to light the car in a single shot.
• Take a shorter exposure of the sky and blend the exposures in post.

In essence:
There's nowt wrong wi' it that money won't put right.


To improve the shot overall, I'd shoot somewhere with civilisation in the background, (as in the rhs of the shot) so instead of having the clump of black trees, you had OoF lights for a nice bokeh effect.

 

[Hedgehogfromhell]

Thank you, i think i shall attempt the multiple flashes path

 

[vchaney]

It looks to me like the moon behind the clouds. Could you shoot from a different angle away from it?

Otherwise the advice above looks good to me.