hey guys, Two out of three cars in our garage are white, the other being a light blue. I can definitely see a bit of swirls on these but it is really hard. I've tried a halogen but they just don't do that great of a job. Now when I try capturing it on camera, I have no luck at all. What do you guys do to find imperfections on white cars? I'm not looking to blow hundreds on a light, honestly I'd rather not buy a light but just for future reference when I have to polish the cars. Brendan
haha i dont know if that would work, don't have access to one either lol...but anything for you! (no homo)
never new polarized sun glasses would work. thankfully my oakleys will come handy then. thanks for the tip!
Welcome! yeah I love my oakley's for that. I have the Juliet's carbon black/black polarized lenses. LOVE them.
polarized stuff + sun would work for sure i got em fine with halogens, but it was at a very weird angle. it was near impossible to catch it on camera too
yeah I have the normal Oakley Hijynx, was going to get the ducati edition but decided I didn't want anything to bold with them
When capturing swirls/scratches on light colour vehicles I find that angles work best to capture. What I mean is point the light as you normally would on the surface of the vehicle but when you take the picture position your self at an angle till you see the imperfections with the camera, you may have to use the manual focus though. Hope this helps.
Ooo I used to have the Ducati Half Jackets but I gave those to my bro and dunno what happened to them. haha. Sorry for the thread jack, back on topic!
the problem trying to photograph swirls on light colors, is the lack of contrast, example... swirls on a black car appear white, they are easy to see, easy to see/photograph... the best option is to underexpose, so the white appears more grey, then add contrast in Photoshop, best using a colorspace like LAB, where you can really increase the contrast greatly... way beyond normal... also, removing saturation will help show the details hidden in light colors, after the increase of contrast... two light sources... one to see as the reflection, and one light to skim across the surface, across the swirls, this light will not be visible in camera, but will make the swirls appear darker... of course, you need a tripod... add a piece of tape, or shoot a seam, to get precise focus... hope this helps...
smalltrees, you seem to know what you are doing, would this work ona silver car too? lifemal and I detailed a silver car yesterday and I had a helluva time capturing water etching with my D60 and 18-55 lens. Should I have gone to my 50mm prime? Hell, you are in Seattle too! Maybe one day you could help me use this camera I got..lol
