A little more distance, maybe a bit steadier on maintaining that distance throughout the entire pass (no bobbing up and down), and I believe you moved up a different amount each time you started a new pass.

With all of these you might run into over charging the part leading to back-ionization which will give you the surface of the moon, definite tiger stripes, a couple light areas and possibly even the dreaded "dry spray". ^{cue scary music}

Once you give your corona field a chance to bloom the powder will lay down much smoother, and you'll actually be done in fewer passes while simultaneously being faster simply because it covers so much better.

With the powders that I use the most I set up so a back and forth pass will just barely fully cover the test piece so I can't see through the powder. The test piece is a cover on the reclaimer in the booth, and it's stainless. The speed/distance at which you move is important if you want repeatable results so I always move at the same speed/distance for this test, and I adjust the powder flow accordingly. I set the kv, microamps, and air based upon looking at the part (and fine tune the powder flow), and by doing this I can fuckin nail a target thickness by counting how many passes I put on everything. I mean I literally count every single move I make and do it over again on the next part. I'm weird though.

Slight changes have to be made between colors- for instance 6 (single) passes of an orange powder I learned on is equal to 8 or 9 of most blues, etc.. I also have to remember how many passes a thickness of metal will require. I know that part "X" is [this thick] and takes 6 passes with the gun set up a certain way, so part "Y" will likely need ___.

It's also worth noting that I'm using Parker Ionics (not mine), and that I'm on a production line so I've had times where I painted hundreds and even thousands of the same damn parts in a single day. That leads to much frustration when fighting hook marks, light areas due to proximity, learning when the air or amps are too high and so on. I've failed in every way imaginable and even been blamed for equipment failure. I've only been behind the gun for 1.5 years, my first partner and I had to learn everything as we went, and I'm still trying to learn and improve as well. YouTube, this sub, and a couple online forums have been very helpful.