Hi guys I hear a lot of detailers are having trouble with getting the defects they want to show in their camera. So I like to offer some advice that works for me. Im not a pro, so my advice is from what I've experienced. before you start reading this article, you might want to understand the tri-angle rule to get the right exposure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQw28-3LEU4 For bright sunny days, I like to use higher F stops ( aperture ) to capture swirls. prefer F16 and up. if its light color cars I will use a higher F stop, for dark color cars I will use a lower F stop. Higher F stops gives you that star burst effect, lower F stops tend to be more round. After F stop is set, you will need to correct your shutter and ISO to create the right exposure.Try not to go lower than 1/50 on the shutter if you're doin handheld. instead bump the ISO up so the camera is more sensitive to light. I tend to make darker colors a little over exposed to see more defects out of the shadows and under exposed for light color cars to give the swirls some definition. here are examples of a high F stop photo in bright sunny day, notice the sun has a star burst effect. Red is a very hard color to capture..too much light will give u a pink effect and too little light will give you a darker red. But what if the light color cars are inside the garage? I would drop the F stop down lower to allow more light in. adjust shutter and ISO accordingly to get the right exposure. here are some examples lower F stop with dark color cars. notice the light source is more round. you don't want very high F stops on dark colors because it will adsorb light, so you need more exposure to show swirls. But what if the dark color cars are outside? here is where it get tricky, if its really bright out then I will use a higher F stop. I don't like doing this because everything else is way under exposed and you can't bring the details back. if its not too bright like later in the afternoon, I use a lower F stop. I hope you find these advice useful with your photos Please comment or like this post if you find it helpful and like more articles alike. Thanks for looking! Franki
White cars, I use high F stops depending on light. if its outside at noon ( sunny ), I want the highest F stop possible. F22 and up if its inside the garage with Husky LED lights. F5.6-9 will do basically the brighter the light source is the higher F stop you will use. You would be better off with manually focus. because there is no contrast with swirls in white, because the swirl itself is white. unlike black swirls are white when a light hits it. I hope you find this helpful
Thanks Franki. I bought my Nikon d3100 3-4 months ago and I'm still new with it. I'll try these tips out. Limny
