Hi, some more suggestions to think about...the driverside mirror looks lost behind the black bumper on the docking bay edge, change f-stop to blur background more and change angle of flash as to reduce reflection off steel door in background b/c it's distracting.

This was a kinda rushed shoot i shot it at f/2.2 could have defiantly changed the DOF a little more so the mirror isn't lost and brought it down to a f/1.8 or if need be lower.... As for the light I didn't realize that it reflected so bad, haha. Things you learn when you have other people look at your work...it is distracting!

Thank you!

So far it is all i know, they are fairly simple. Couple buttons on the back easy to switch to manual mode and ge rid of the ETTL set up, I noticed if i let the camera decide the power with the 2 flashes, it would over expose, and so i had to just switch them over to manual. i believe i ran them at 1/8 of the power.

I would say that so far learning them, and lighting in general is pretty interesting, it hasn't been overly complicated either. The only time i have had any miss fire is when im running in high speed shoot after about 6 frames on 1/8 power you will either loose one or both strobes as they struggle to keep up. at 1/16 you can go for a while.

Nice shot! IMHO, it would have been better in HDR.

ugh :facepalm:

shot looks pretty good but to me it looks a tad out of focus. if you were shooting in very low light, the lens might have had a tough time trying to determine the focus distance. i keep a flashlight in my camera bag for just that reason. i will put my camera on "ONE SHOT" AF mode, light up what i want to focus on (usually the front badge or headlight) then turn off the flashlight and pull the trigger the rest of the way. it's a little bit cumbersome but not bad. also, on my alienbees you can turn on soft light bulbs to help with focusing, they kill the vagabond tho if you aren't plugged directly into a wall

Thanks for the flash light tip, i tried using my phone one night with the led flash turned on like a flash light just wasn't enough, It was a no light situation, so i had my g/f hitting the test button on the PW to try and get a focus! haha. It was funny to watch her do, she is 5'1" and the light stand was at about 8'+6" for the umbrella fold mount and everything. (umbrella left off)

Can you recommend the one you use or do you think something else would be better?

6MT, you are not going to get me to shoot in HDR anytime soon, I'm glad that you like HDR so much! Thank you for the complement, but I wont be shooting in HDR, not my thing; most likely never will be.

So thanks again for you compliment, but im not shooting HDR.

(thought i would say it a couple times since you have said it to me a couple times in a couple different threads, and i have told you it wont happen.)

the...........what? flashlight? just a good ol' maglite... also speedlights aren't really that good for lighting a car unless you have a ton of them. larger lights like alienbee's can work wonders

I meant Flashlight and good old maglight sounds good, I looked into the AB's but i thought the portability of the speedlights would work better in terms of space. I will have to look into those again.

Thank you!

yea AB's definitely take up more space but they make up for it in results:

Porsche Photoshoot 3-7-10 - JPMcG Photography
Mike's 370Z Photoshoot - 5/7/10 - JPMcG Photography
ZdayZ Photoshoots '10 - JPMcG Photography
Tony's 370z Quick Shoot - 9/23/10 - JPMcG Photography

I've been conviced, hah, Damn... Quality shoots! Thank you again, for providing some pointers and guidance!

One more question which AB light setup would you suggest from your experience?
B4-8-or-1600 and would my PW's be able to trigger them or am I hosed?

i do what i can :tiphat: that was all just with 2 AB800's. i'm going to pick up 4 more next week for a total of 6... :woot:

Damn! and thank you!

Just say no to maglites!

Consider something from 4Sevens - 4Sevens.Com like Fenix or 4Sevens.

6 AlienBees! thats gonna be an expensive setup you got there, not to mention all the accessories you'll probably want for each. I'm sure its gonna be well worth it though. Between the Z and other expenses, I really wish I could set aside more funds for photo gear. I'm sure this is more of a business expense for you.