what is the secret to taking pictures of scratches? I have the hardest time trying to show scratched and 50/50 shots in a photo. what technique do you use? I am working with just a regular digital camera nothing too fancy. currently I am looking a getting Sonys new t300 how would that camera be? if not any suggestions on a camera to get or what kind of specs I should be looking at?
The trick is to force the camera to focus on the surface of the paint and not the reflection. The easiest way to achieve that is to lay a tape stripe between the polished and un-polished sections and focus your camera on the tape.
Any camera should work. The problem most likely is that your camera is trying to focus on the reflection of something rather than the swirls or scratch. Try putting down a little piece of tape to give your camera something to focus on. Another trick is to put your finger on the paint and use it to point to the mark, that way the camera will focus on your finger. Manual focus works too but I don't think most point and shoot cameras have that option. Plus it's hard to manually focus for me at least because I'm usually blinded by the sun. lol Edit: Dan can type faster. lol
You can usually meter your digital camera so that it focuses on an object before you actually take the picture. On my Sony Cybershot DSC-N1, which someone stole from me earlier today... long story, you can hold the shoot button half way down to meter the image being shot and lock in the focus. That's the way I did it if I ever had any issues. I guess I'll be shopping for a new camera again. It gives me the opportunity to shop for a DSLR, LoL.
The next best camera to a DSLR if you are not wanting to get into another addiction like detailing (too late for me!)... take a look at the Canon S5. It has 99% of the functions of a basic DSLR with a nice glass lens. I carry this most of the time and only use my DSLR when I want to use better lenses for specialized cases. The new S5 IS has the built in "Image Stabilization" as well which is REALLY nice!
