Audi A3, lit with flash

[_dobbo_]

Following my purchase of some new flashes, I had a go today at seeing what can be done when you don't have any interesting backgrounds to call upon.

These were taken on a nearby industrial estate once we'd convinced the security guard we weren't terrorists! I never planned to get lots of pictures - I had in mind two photos I wanted to achieve, and I feel happy that I got both reasonably well nailed, being as it was the first time using the flashes in anger.

This one was taken with the two Vivitars off the camera, one about 5 feet off the nearside front corner, and the other the same distance off the offside rear corner. Both flashes were triggered by an on board SB600 set to manual mode, and set to underexpose by about 3 stops.



The lighting on the rear of the car isn't as even as I wanted. I struggled a little bit with the remote triggers, and setting the power right - to be honest I rushed a bit

This one was taken with the two Vivitars set at what I thought was full power, and the SB600 also set at full power.



You can see in this one I clearly had the right hand flash set at higher power than the left. It wasn't so obvious on the rear LCD preview - once again though, slowing down and taking more care would have helped. My excuse is that it was basically pitch black, so I couldn't see the flashes to set the power! Time to add a torch to an already absurdly heavy camera bag...

Minimal editing on both, just getting rid of the plates and a bit of cloning on the concrete.

I hope these are interesting to someone!



edited to fix speeelingz

Edited by _dobbo_ on Friday 28th March 09:03

[trackdemon]

Cool! Flash photography is the next big thing for me; really want to get into strobes with enough power to light the darkside when shooting into the sun, can get some great effects.

Funnily enough I'm shooting a white A3 Sportback next week, have been getting some reasonable results with multiple exposures from my single SB800 so I'll be giving that a try - white should be great for it!

[JD]

_dobbo_ said:

I hope these are interesting to someone!

Me!

Following your previous thread, I've also picked up some V285s Off ebay, So I plan on thread stalking you for a bit!

I think I will invest in some cheapy radio triggers for mine though, as I dont have a proper flash to trigger them with

[_dobbo_]

trackdemon said:

Cool! Flash photography is the next big thing for me; really want to get into strobes with enough power to light the darkside when shooting into the sun, can get some great effects.

Funnily enough I'm shooting a white A3 Sportback next week, have been getting some reasonable results with multiple exposures from my single SB800 so I'll be giving that a try - white should be great for it!

Nice clubman! Using multiple exposures clearly helps with getting even lighting - I could probably work through the pics I took and do the same thing, I'm just too lazy!

I actually deliberately used this yellow A3 because I figured the colour would lend itself to this sort of treatment - I think you are right, a white one could work very well.

As for having enough power to light the car shooting into the sun - at sunset I've no doubt the combined power of my two Vivitars and my SB600 would do it - but at any other time of the day - I'm not so sure. I think that will take a lot of power...

[_dobbo_]

JD said:

Following your previous thread, I've also picked up some V285s Off ebay, So I plan on thread stalking you for a bit!

I think I will invest in some cheapy radio triggers for mine though, as I dont have a proper flash to trigger them with

Ooh, I've got a stalker!

Tonight I was shooting in pitch black at ranges of less than 10m between flashes. The optical slave triggers were about 60% reliable in these conditions, so I dread to think what they will be like when the ambient light is brighter. I couldn't in good conscience recommend the optical triggers I'm using, even with my limited experience thus far. On the plus side they only cost me about £10 so I don't feel like I've spent (and wasted) the earth.

[Deanphoto]

trackdemon said:

Funnily enough I'm shooting a white A3 Sportback next week, have been getting some reasonable results with multiple exposures from my single SB800 so I'll be giving that a try - white should be great for it!

Ibis can be a bit of a pig to light with flash,. and especially at night! Just make sure you take your time with it. The below shots are using only two flashes. I'd say you want a min of 3 and some multiple exposures.





I prefer Ibis in natural light..

[_dobbo_]

I really like that first one Dean, nice composition.

I've started keeping a notebook with ideas to try to make sure that my photos are interesting - and more importantly that when I get the opportunity to shoot a car, I've actually got some idea what to do with it!

[Deanphoto]

_dobbo_ said:

I've started keeping a notebook with ideas to try to make sure that my photos are interesting - and more importantly that when I get the opportunity to shoot a car, I've actually got some idea what to do with it!

I've done pretty much the same thing. I have a list of shots to shoot and pre shoot check and the like. I also have a scrap book full of my fav car images which I take with me on shoots for some inspiration.

Did you get my email re the 285 mods?

[Deanphoto]

Deanphoto said:

Did you get my email re the 285 mods?

S'ok, I found it my spam

[_dobbo_]

Deanphoto said:

Did you get my email re the 285 mods?

Yep, and replied. Already planning a shopping excursion to Maplin (or at least the Maplin website).

edit - posted at the same minute! Glad you got it.

Edited by _dobbo_ on Friday 28th March 09:52

[trackdemon]

_dobbo_ said:

Nice clubman! Using multiple exposures clearly helps with getting even lighting - I could probably work through the pics I took and do the same thing, I'm just too lazy!

Its actually relatively easy - just use 'lighten' as your blending mode in layers (although the one above was done manually by just erasing the unwanted parts of the layer)

_dobbo_ said:

I actually deliberately used this yellow A3 because I figured the colour would lend itself to this sort of treatment - I think you are right, a white one could work very well.

White will work brilliantly, and it wont require quite so much power to light which should make it easier to control. First time I ever tried multiple flashes was on a white GT3, and it did work well. I shot a bright silver 123d Coupe last week and that worked really well too. Black is a bl00dy nightmare

_dobbo_ said:

As for having enough power to light the car shooting into the sun - at sunset I've no doubt the combined power of my two Vivitars and my SB600 would do it - but at any other time of the day - I'm not so sure. I think that will take a lot of power...

Yeah sunset is fine, I'm after enough power to use whilst the sun is up - something like this :



BTW, do you shoot D200? If so do you know you can set your camera to be the commander & SB600 as slave native without need to buy any other bits?

[_dobbo_]

trackdemon said:

Yeah sunset is fine, I'm after enough power to use whilst the sun is up - something like this :



BTW, do you shoot D200? If so do you know you can set your camera to be the commander & SB600 as slave native without need to buy any other bits?

That BMW picture shouldn't be too hard to replicate even with modest flash kit. The Vivitars are hard to ignore at approx £50 each, that's 4 flashes and remote triggers for the same price as a single SB800.

I've used my D200 in commander mode before, but it wont work with my current setup, because the pre-flashes from the camera body will trigger the optical sensors and the Vivitars would fire too early.

I'm almost certainly going to switch to radio triggers at which point I'll hopefully be able to use three off camera flashes!

[Bob_Defly]

Good work, I am also testing some flashes, will let you know what results I get...