Hi everybody, I'm new to Fstoppers but not to photography. Having a passion for all things cars, and working with cars for the past 5-6 years, I am relatively new to car photography. I recently bought some more gear for my camera and I thought I'd have a go at light painting my own car. This is my first attempt, the only light source I used to do this is a speedlite. I would really like your input on this picture and if any of the more experienced car photographers / retouchers have any pointers on what to improve or "do's" and "don't's" I would really appreciate it.
Great first try at light painting!
I would say that light painting is one of the hardest forms of lighting and you have done a great job for a first try. It looks like it was still quite light out when you took the photo meaning you might have been limited to short shutter times.
I personally like to do mine in the darkest location possible and use a single pass to light the car with a LED wand (Wescott Ice Light)usually using a shutter time of about 10seconds. Takes a lot of experimentation to find what works for you, and there is no wrong or right way to do it. Just make sure the final result highlights key body lines/points, and is even.
For this I used a speedlite actually, so shutter time hash't been longer than 3-4 seconds, and I flashed the car bit by bit and then I composited them in Ps. I guess it's much easier doing it with a continuous light source and expose for 10+ seconds, but as I said, it's my first try.
It is much easier to do it with a continuous light source for sure. Also, doing bracketing with the continuous lighting give you light and dark areas to layer/mask in PS too.
Great first try though!