it was very dark there, it was heavily overcast, so it was really difficult to get it brighter without distorting the image, any suggestions for next time?
Well, darkness is something you can't always control and if it's not easy to just pop back over you have to shoot with what you have. Suggestions watch your horizon line and try to keep it level (I'm guilty of this one too) #4 & 5 both tilt. Try shooting from different elevations from the object. You'll be suprised at how different a picture can be from even 1 foot higher or lower.