# 55 Chevy Pro Street Truck.



## littlemt (Jun 29, 2013)




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## littlemt (Jun 29, 2013)

a slightly different angle..


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## littlemt (Jun 30, 2013)




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## cgipson1 (Jun 30, 2013)

Very little detail in it. Very poor lighting / exposure! I am trying to help, although you didn't seem to want to listen last night. You were probably told these were good elsewhere (facebook?) but you are unlikely to hear that here.


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## goodguy (Jun 30, 2013)

Very cool truck but I wonder how it rides.


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## imagemaker46 (Jun 30, 2013)

I love the truck and also the way it was shot.  I've shot a lot of custom show cars over the years and shoot them in a similar manner.  The sky and flames all tie into the image very well.  Thanks for posting these.


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## Derrel (Jun 30, 2013)

An old high school buddy of mine had one of these! He restored it to a simply wonderful condition back in the early 1980's, and kept the truck for almost 30 years, before passing it along to the next owner. Ahhh, sweet memories. Anyway, I wish we could see more detail in the blacks of the vehicle.


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## runnah (Jun 30, 2013)

Shooting black cars at night is like shooting polar bears in a blizzard...difficult.

In this case you need more light and then reshoot.

Also try shooting at dusk when the sky is more blue than black.


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## John_Olexa (Jun 30, 2013)

I like the concept if it was 1 or 2 of the images ( I like the 1st one!) but not in all of them. If you get a chance again maybe shoot to get a little more detail in the truck, as it is the main subject, and for a little variety as well.


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## littlemt (Jun 30, 2013)

cgipson1 said:


> Very little detail in it. Very poor lighting / exposure! I am trying to help, although you didn't seem to want to listen last night. You were probably told these were good elsewhere (facebook?) but you are unlikely to hear that here.





These shots are meant to be dark, and poor lighting, as there wasn't any lights other then a small led flashlight, I won't change, they are night shots in the darkness. I have shot this truck during the day, and those have a different theme, but at night, under the stars, this is the look I wanted to achieve.


But the feedback is still good from you and everybody, I am always curious to see how other eyes view this style.


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## Derrel (Jun 30, 2013)

Well, if these are "meant to be dark" then maybe you should reconsider how you are lighting these. There's a real, genuine, fundamental mistake you are making. What is it? if these are "supposed to be dark", then why are you using a small, point light source like an LED flashlight? Using that type of lighting is doing two things, neither of them any good at all.

First off, as we can see in the left rear wheel well's fender, there is a purple-ish hue to the highlights. That looks "faked"...it defeats the idea of matching the flames and the natural, orange sunset sky colors. The eye easily spots light sources that have wildly artificial or false-looking color temperature or hues.

The second issue with the LED light source is that it creates specular highlights in a situation where there should NOT be specular highlights. That long, thin, wrong-colored LED light source is so,so,so small that the highlights are roughly 1/4 in ch long overexposed areas...what would really show the shape of the truck are what are called "diffuse highlights"...having long, specular highlights screams out "artificial lighting added"--but, there's almost no payoff for the adding of the highlights...no shape, no volume, no contouring that really shows the beauty of a 55 Chevy truck. I am familiar with the 55 Chevy's wonderful sculptural qualities.

If you want to paint on some highlights, they'd look much more natural if the light source were about 100 to 200 times larger than an LED flashlight's source. Make the light source BIGGER, and softer, and paint on some highlight stripes, while still keeping the scene dark, and maybe add a warming gel, and you'd have a good lighting scheme, which would actually look believable, even if the overall key of the shots were to be kept very dark.


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## TechChuck (Jun 30, 2013)

littlemt said:


> These shots are meant to be dark, and poor lighting, as there wasn't any lights other then a small led flashlight, I won't change, they are night shots in the darkness. I have shot this truck during the day, and those have a different theme, but at night, under the stars, this is the look I wanted to achieve.
> 
> But the feedback is still good from you and everybody, I am always curious to see how other eyes view this style.



I like the look and agree with you. The one with the front and flames Is fantastic. How did you light it?


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## littlemt (Jun 30, 2013)

TechChuck said:


> littlemt said:
> 
> 
> > These shots are meant to be dark, and poor lighting, as there wasn't any lights other then a small led flashlight, I won't change, they are night shots in the darkness. I have shot this truck during the day, and those have a different theme, but at night, under the stars, this is the look I wanted to achieve.
> ...




I walked in front of the camera, in between the camera and truck, and light painted with a small led flashlight, I hold the flashlight high and have the light hitting the vehicle at a downward angle, the exposure on these shots varied between 6 - 10 seconds.


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## littlemt (Jun 30, 2013)

Derrel said:


> Well, if these are "meant to be dark" then maybe you should reconsider how you are lighting these. There's a real, genuine, fundamental mistake you are making. What is it? if these are "supposed to be dark", then why are you using a small, point light source like an LED flashlight? Using that type of lighting is doing two things, neither of them any good at all.
> 
> First off, as we can see in the left rear wheel well's fender, there is a purple-ish hue to the highlights. That looks "faked"...it defeats the idea of matching the flames and the natural, orange sunset sky colors. The eye easily spots light sources that have wildly artificial or false-looking color temperature or hues.
> 
> ...




What do you figure is a good, large light source? It must be battery operated. I have tried with a stronger battery powered spotlight but it was too much.


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## cgipson1 (Jun 30, 2013)

littlemt said:


> Derrel said:
> 
> 
> > Well, if these are "meant to be dark" then maybe you should reconsider how you are lighting these. There's a real, genuine, fundamental mistake you are making. What is it? if these are "supposed to be dark", then why are you using a small, point light source like an LED flashlight? Using that type of lighting is doing two things, neither of them any good at all.
> ...



A decent video light would do nicely.. it won't have hotspots in it like the average flashlight does. They give very even light if properly designed. Still going to have to expose properly if you want to get detail in darker areas though...


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## Derrel (Jun 30, 2013)

Anything to soften the light would help...even something as simple as an empty one gallon plastic milk jug, with the flashlight inserted into it. Another thing I think would work well would be a styrofoam ice chest made into a small softbox. You can use it with a sheet of tracing paper taped on pinned to the front of it, and the flashlight inserted through a small hole cut in the bottom. The nice thing about styrofoam chests is that styrofoam cuts well with a steak knife AND it grips and fits tightly, and is so,so light that it doesn't tend to slip or torque off the way heavier materials do.

styrofoam ice chest - Google Search


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