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What is the best way to photograph fine swirls and scratches? I have a EB MCS and a White LR3 which are both swirled out. I went out to take pictures, but none of them came out right.
use the manual focus feature if you camera has one, and try to either have the sun/a really bright light in the center of the shot. the light usually brings out the swirls and the camera can pick it up.
if you only have autofocus, the camera has a really hard time picking out what to focus on. try putting your hand down near the spot your are trying to photograph. this will allow the camera to focus on something.
the best way to show the results is in a test spot where you wax one area of the hood and leave one part unwaxed (temporarily). then place the sun or really bright light right on the edge of the unwaxed and waxed parts.
I usually try to keep the halogen at an angle while working at the car. This keeps my body from blocking all the light to the area I am working on. I too have a $14 dollar halogen and it works really really well (be careful with it, it gets insanly hot and the bulbs are fragile (obviously)). l actually think mine is the single lamp version of Ski's.
Thanks MCDBrendan,
I've been sick with the flu for the past 3 days, so I've been off my computer.
When I take photos of defects, I prefer to do this in bright sunlight IF I'm shooting a dark car. If the paint is a light silver, or white, it's very difficult to capture these as the light will diffuse such that it completely blows out the swirl.
So here are some tips.
Dark colored paints:
I like to use the sun whenever possible (cloudy days are bad)
I will use autofocus most of the time (and switch to manual only if I can't achieve focus by following the following process)
a.) Focus on an adjacent panel or line
b.) Can't get my hand on the paint surface so I have something to focus on (sometimes not possible if the paint is hot or too far away)
Look at this picture. The center body panel wasn't accidental, I chose that so I'd have a place to focus on. You don't want to focus on the reflection, otherwise you'll end up with a blurry picture that won't show the swirls.
Light colored paints:
Wait until it's dark or go to a dark place.
Using a bright flash light, or halogen bulb--45 to 55 watts are plenty, use that as your sun source about 1' to 2' off your paint and photograph it. Or as Skitelluride said, use a halogen work lamp.
The biggest mistake I see with most close-up photographs is the photographer did not use macro mode.
Most point & shoot digicams will not focus closer than about 5 feet until you enable macro mode. It is usually a flower icon.
If you do not, the lens will not be able to focus back far enough and the image will appear blurred. Sadly I see it all the time. Don't forget to turn it off when you are back to shooting at regular distances.
