Well, I chase storms and photograph them. I particularly spend a lot of time photographing lightning (if Chance and Chris have no objection to me posting a link to my photography site I will do so) so a great deal of my photography is in very dark if not near pitch black lighting. With lightning, however, you can use the light from that to help expose things depending on the distance of the strike from your position.
That all said, I will kinda teach some photography. Those that know me are already running because they know this will be a long post, but Im going to try and surprise them.
You have a particularly tough shooting situation because you are trying to shoot a white car in a dark back ground with those street lights to add some extra complexity to it. All cameras whether digital or Film shot for an 18% gray exposure. In other words, cameras equipped with Through The Lens metering (TTL) which is most modern cameras, will try and set an auto exposure to get 18% gray. You can overide this on most camers but some you cannot.
What this means to you is a simple rule in photography. If its dark underexpose, if its bright over expose. Have you ever seen snow pictures that looked kinda dirty, grayish looking? Thats the camera using auto exposure and trying to expose for 18% gray. If you take a picture of snow, and you set the exposure a half to one stop over, it will look perfectly white. Shooting dark is just the opposite, you want to shoot one half to one stop under what the TTL says to use.
You see where this is going yet? You got a white car, with a dark background. Can you imagine the confusion on the part of the camera? when faced with such a situation, you should zoom in more on your subject (in this case, the car) so as to cut down on how much darkness the camera sees and thus give it a better field to adjust for properly. This is why the pictures of your car on the parking lot with the street light in the back ground and all that darness seem kind a two dimensional (technically they are, but you can shoot in such a way that it has a three dimensional feel to it, you'll know it immediately if you ever see a pictured done that way). In otherwords, they seem kind a flat.
This is why I like the ones that were shot with the building in the back ground, on the firelane, etc. Because you dont have all the darkness throwing off the exposure, you get more even lighting and exposure and more 3d type look, they have depth. The #4 picture is a good example of this. Want to know why? Because the color of the pavement is very close to 18% gray so the camera sees this and goes Oh Yeah, I know exactly how to expose for this. It sets the setting and everything comes out good. The white is white, the red is red and everything has a depth to it, it draws you into the picture.
So I like most of the shots you have with the building in the back ground with excpetion of a couple that were over exposed. The very last picture, just a touch more lighting or exposure and that would be an automotive centerfold. Overall you did an excellent job with what you had to work with.
Sorry for the long post, but I like to teach a little on photograpy. Im no expert, but I dont mind passing along what I do know. I hope to see even more pics from ya in the near future as you keep practicing. Let me know if this was at all helpful.
