Flash vs Light Painting

[minicoop1985]

OK. I went and took a couple shots of the car as a comparison. Which one do you guys think works better? What can I do to work on/fix these? Sure, I do this for a living, but during the day...

First, we have a light painting with a... swapped background (horribly done, admittedly-that's my first ever attempt at it)

Light paint by longm1985, on Flickr

Then we have the flash composite (two images, one for car, one for background).


Flash composite by longm1985, on Flickr


Finally, we have flash and long exposure for a single exposure:

Flashed Focus by longm1985, on Flickr

I'm very interested to see what you guys think.

 

[Braineack]

combine more exposures for the flash work. The side of the car you flashed is borderline overexposed and the front of the car is under. Flash around the car as you would lightpaint it. You should be doing essentially the same thing as light painting, but just using multiple flashes/exposures into of one long continuous exposure. The same shot for #2 I probably would have lit the side, front, far front corner, rear, and interior at least.

this is probably a good read for you: sections 7, 8, and 9: Photo Cornucopia

I personally prefer the look of the flash work on section 7 over all the lightpainting on section 8.

there's nothing I like about #3.

 

[minicoop1985]

Thanks for the honest feedback. #3 looks like it can't be saved anyway. I need a portable strobe and shorter car to make that work. You're right with the composite. I have work to do on getting more than two exposures together seamlessly, but when I do, I'll be doing more with flash.

I reworked the lightpainting shot. I might have actually saved it with the original background.

Light paint by longm1985, on Flickr

Opinions on that one?