Good Camera for taking Before/After pictures?

[HardLineDetail]

Hello all! . I'm wondering if anyone knows what's a good camera for taking good before and after pictures. It should be able to take good pictures of details in the car's paint and be in a budget of $100-150. Just something simple as long as it's good for taking before and after.

Thanks in advance icture:

 

[AntC]

Any modern digital camera will pretty much do, the ones out now are 12megapixels or better, you can find them for under $99

 

[dooyaunastan]

When buying a camera in that cost-range, going for the most megapixels isn't going to guarantee you the best camera. From what I've gathered, at that price point, you're safer going with the actual Photography oriented companies (Canon, Nikon) than you would be with a Sony or what have you, not that the Sony's or others are bad cameras, there's just a notable lean in general opinion towards the actual camera company than the electronics giant.

All the homework I've done, the best and most praised camera in that range is the Nikon L26, which is what I'm looking into getting. As far as it's ability to capture defects and correction, wouldn't have the faintest idea. Hopefully someone on here owns one and can chime in.

 

[VroomVroom]

As with detailing.... 90% process, 10% product. The L26 is fine, as are most cameras in that range - just understand the limitations and compromises. Beyond that... Study how to frame your shot, make sure the vehicle is positioned for the light source, and shoot away... Honestly, there's as much to learn about photography as there is about detailing.

 

[95oRANGEcRUSH]

A tripod is highly recommended and can be found cheap on eBay or Amazon. This will ensure that your before/afters are always taken from the same height, angle, etc. and will help you avoid blur due to hand shake.

 

[zmcgovern45]

As with detailing.... 90% process, 10% product. The L26 is fine, as are most cameras in that range - just understand the limitations and compromises. Beyond that... Study how to frame your shot, make sure the vehicle is positioned for the light source, and shoot away... Honestly, there's as much to learn about photography as there is about detailing.

Great advice... there are going to be a lot of limitations within your price range. Cameras with manual exposure options will yield the best results for a lot of the detailing photos because they will allow you to compensate for bright lights on dark paints... ie when you are using the brinkmann to show a 50/50 on black paint. Your camera (in auto mode) may try to over compensate for the bright light that it detects (the brinkmann) and lower the exposure of the image, causing you to loose much of the detail in the black paint that you are trying to capture.

There is a TON to learn about photography, and it can quickly overwhelm you, however if you want to produce the best images, the only way to go is a DSLR and learn to utilize all of the manual settings.... however I understand this it out of the scope of your question, and out of many people's budgets, so you have to do the best with what you can get. To be honest, many of the point and shoot cameras in that price range are all going to be roughly the same.. I would stick to the big names - Nikon or Canon - as they are the industry leaders.

 

[lazyjet]

:iagree: Canon and Nikon are the way to go. I my self will probably be getting the Cannon S100. And just like detailing, getting down the correct technique is whats gonna make the difference. :xyxthumbs:

 

[Dr_Pain]

I have a Cannon D90 with tripod and flash and filters etc... and actually find myself using my iPhone 5 most often to take pics because I love to get my customers excited. I take a pic or 2 and text them to show them the detail in progress. And at the end, I try to take a couple of "glamor shot" to let them know that their vehicle is ready. For convenience, I almost invariably end up using my phone to update the website (which I just recently started)

Having been an amateur photographers all my adult life, I capitalize on my knowledge of angles, compositions and lighting to create the better picture. The best time of the day to make the picture pop is dusk and dawn. Mid day = wash out! Late evening or night = nightmares of shadows and pixelation due to aperture and shutter speed, even with an external flash. The iPhone has a 8 megapixel cam, so I try to compose the picture on the screen. The main advantage of the 12 MPx (and up) is that you can do a lot of cropping without compromising the quality of the end product. DSLR compared to iPhone is that you can set aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc... but how many of you actually do that?

Don't get me wrong, my next "supercar" will be shot with my Nikon, direct and indirect flashes, polarized lens and filters.... and will stage the car, and photoshop the "imperfections"! Can't wait!

 

[mackey]

most P&S cameras in that price range will get the job done as far as showing before/after correction and if you play around with the settings could actually do fairly well taking "artsy" or glam shots in the right light

As with detailing.... 90% process, 10% product.

Honestly, there's as much to learn about photography as there is about detailing.

as with most things its the user that makes the biggest difference in quality. there are pros who can make even camera phone pics look great but they also understand the limitations and use proper techniques and fundamentals. the same goes for someone who sets their DSLR in auto and clicks away with the hope they get something decent

as for not much to learn, in terms of photographing defects, not too much so long as you get the right lighting to show the correction. if you want to do more, then yes much much more than simply following even basic fundamentals. thats like saying detailing is easy.

 

[zmcgovern45]

I have a Cannon D90 with tripod and flash and filters etc... and actually find myself using my iPhone 5 most often to take pics because I love to get my customers excited. I take a pic or 2 and text them to show them the detail in progress. And at the end, I try to take a couple of "glamor shot" to let them know that their vehicle is ready. For convenience, I almost invariably end up using my phone to update the website (which I just recently started)

Having been an amateur photographers all my adult life, I capitalize on my knowledge of angles, compositions and lighting to create the better picture. The best time of the day to make the picture pop is dusk and dawn. Mid day = wash out! Late evening or night = nightmares of shadows and pixelation due to aperture and shutter speed, even with an external flash. The iPhone has a 8 megapixel cam, so I try to compose the picture on the screen. The main advantage of the 12 MPx (and up) is that you can do a lot of cropping without compromising the quality of the end product. DSLR compared to iPhone is that you can set aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc... but how many of you actually do that?

Don't get me wrong, my next "supercar" will be shot with my Nikon, direct and indirect flashes, polarized lens and filters.... and will stage the car, and photoshop the "imperfections"! Can't wait!

Digital noise (or pixelation as you called it) is due to high ISO settings that your camera will default to in auto mode to compensate for the dark scenes - it has nothing to do with shutter speed or aperture.

I shoot 99% of the time in full manual mode. I also shoot in RAW so that I can adjust my images to the fullest extent and still maintain quality. Learning to use your camera means shooting in manual mode... once you figure it out, there is simply no way to produce better results. Period.


It would be impossible to duplicate the following shot without utilizing manual mode of your camera (and/or doing more editing work in post processing). Due to the extreme back light caused by the bright sky - your camera would either compensate in 1 of two ways. 1) it would underexpose the car & the rest of the scene in order to properly expose for the light sky or 2) it would overexpose (blow out) the sky in order to try to expose the car better.

Understanding how the metering system works, I shot this in an instance so that I was able to balance the exposure of the sky and the exposure of the car so that I could tweak it in post for the best exposure. You'll notice that there are still some blown out highlights (on the headlight), however it is a much better image than would have been captured by a P&S in auto mode.

Learning manual functions will also allow you to properly compensate for images like this, where harsh lighting is on a totally black surface. Your camera wants to compensate for the harsh lighting by lowering the exposure of the overall image so that the lights are not over exposed. Knowing that I do not care if the lights are blown out, allows me to adjust my exposure according to the rest of the scene and disregard the loss of detail in the lights.

 

[yakky]

In that price range, I'd see if you could score a used S90 or older G series Canon. Save another $50 and you can probably find a deal on a older (but still great) DSLR.

 

[Dr_Pain]

Digital noise (or pixelation as you called it) is due to high ISO settings that your camera will default to in auto mode to compensate for the dark scenes - it has nothing to do with shutter speed or aperture.

I guess I should have expected that someone would catch my "faux pas". I was on my phone and did not "complete" the formulated thought I had in my head and when I re-read I thought to myself "dumdass"

You are 100% correct that the grainy nature of the picture is as a direct result ISO. What I had in my head did not translate "just right" (and when I tried to correct it I could not). In Auto mode, the ISO setting is selected automatically for you based on the "best exposure" which in turn depends on the limitations of your camera (and its lens). This includes shutter speed and aperture etc.... If you are able to put the camera on a tripod (reducing shakes) and use a low F-stop lens, large aperture setting and slowed shutter speed, you can achieve the same exposure with a lower ISO, reducing the grainy "pixelation" artifacts. And for the purist, you can manipulate directly the depth of field and other image characteristics.... without depending on software based photo manipulation.

I hope I did not miss something this time. Being called out once is good enough for me

In any case, I agree with Z that learning to use the full manual mode will unlock a WORLD of possibilities. If you are mainly interested in simple shots, even an iphone or P/S (with some knowledge of lighting and composition) can give you satisfactory results.

This is a 50/50 taken free hand with my iphone and a tripod light. The image was reduced in size for upload purpose. As good as Z's glamour shot.... heck no!

** and Z, you shooting in full manual is the exception. I normally shoot with aperture priority, low ISO, RAW format. My OCD nature does not do well with having to set all the manual modes :nomore:

 

[yakky]

For those that shoot in full manual mode, why? For me using exposure compensation or localized metering is much more effective.

 

[zmcgovern45]

I normally shoot with aperture priority, low ISO, RAW format. My OCD nature does not do well with having to set all the manual modes

^So if you are shooting in AP, and you are stating that you shoot in low ISO... those are 2 of the 3 settings that you control in manual mode... all you would have to do differently is set your shutter speed in manual mode and there you go! The benefit to this is that while in aperture priority mode, your camera will constantly be changing the shutter speed to try to determine the best exposure, however (assuming your environment doesn't change) once you get your SS set - you won't need to change it and your photos will look more uniform from one image to the next. It is up to you, but if you are shooting in AP, then there is no reason you can't take the next step up to manual... just like detailing, a little bit of practice goes a long way. (Nice work on that 50/50 too, that truck/suv was hammered!)

For those that shoot in full manual mode, why? For me using exposure compensation or localized metering is much more effective.

Using exposure compensation is effectively shooting in what I will call 'semi-manual' mode. All exposure comp. does is tell your camera to over or underexpose an image by a given value that you input. This is the same thing as reading your meter in manual mode, and choosing to expose your image above or below the suggested "zero point" where the meter thinks is the appropriate exposure.

Using manual mode is more effective because you have complete control of the 3 main factors that affect your exposure. Shutter speed, Aperture, and ISO. If you are shooting in auto mode, your camera decides ALL of these values for you... even if you use exposure compensation to help control the exposure you are looking for, you have no say in how the camera compensates the settings.

For example, say you want to use an exposure comp. of +1 to brighten your image - your camera may decrease shutter speed, increase (lower number, wider opening) your aperture, or increase your ISO... or some combo of this. If you are shooting a very small detail, you sure as heck want a large enough depth of field (controlled by your aperture) so that you fully capture that detail completely in focus. If your camera is making the decisions on how to control your aperture, you may have a depth of field so shallow that the image is worthless for what you were trying to show!

There is just no way around it...if you want the best images, understanding and utilizing manual mode is the only option.

The aperture priority and shutter speed priority modes are a great alternative, however you will still (most likely) use your exposure comp. quite often, which in that case - why not just shoot in manual mode? It is basically the same thing!



As far as the localized metering comment... that will definitely help your camera to understand what you are trying to expose for, however I still feel the metering systems are a simply tools used to help you guess at what your settings should be, which is why manual mode is so powerful - you can control all of your settings.

Another very powerful tool is knowing and understanding post-processing techniques to maximize your results, but that is neither here nor there.


**I am going to make a "Basics of Photography" write up sometime soon so that everyone can understand how to maximize detailing images, as I feel the quality of my images play a huge role in portraying my abilities as a detailer to my potential customers.

Hope that helps!

 

[Dr_Pain]

**I am going to make a "Basics of Photography" write up sometime soon so that everyone can understand how to maximize detailing images, as I feel the quality of my images play a huge role in portraying my abilities as a detailer to my potential customers.

Hope that helps!

:dblthumb2:icture:

 

[HardLineDetail]

Wow, come back from work and see all this information! I love this forum. Its good to see that i can go for a $100 camera for this. I'm doing my sister's bf's lexus and want to take before and after to put on my website I do also have a honda accord and civic to do on the weekend . I order a big order from here and can't wait for it to come.. its gonna take 9 days to get here in cali. :/ I cant wait to :buffing:

 

[HardLineDetail]

Sorry for double posting but hows this camera? It's on sale for $80 and it says the regular price is $140. Sony DSCW650B 16.1Megapixel Digital Camera Black DSCW650B - Best Buy

 

[VroomVroom]

^ That Sony is fine. Here's the biggest marketing misconception, though.... megapixels. Way beyond the scope of our discussion here, but that's arguably the last thing you need to worry about when buying a camera. Nonetheless....it's a fine little machine for $80.

FWIW....I favor my DSLR, and I too shoot RAW, and most of the time in aperture mode. I manage the ISO, but I'm more than happy to let the camera select the shutter speed. Accordingly, my most common priority when taking a photo is determining my goal: art, or clarity? Or, in words we can better understand, do I want that 50/50 to be as accurate as possible and REALLY pop, or am I after some nice bokeh on an 'after' shot that will make the car stand out even more?

All that said...here's another cliche for you. The best camera for the job is the one you have with you at the time. Which means your iPhone is perfectly capable...just concentrate on framing the shot and ensuring the lighting is right. (AKA: Make sure the sun is behind you!)

 

[yakky]

Using manual mode is more effective because you have complete control of the 3 main factors that affect your exposure. Shutter speed, Aperture, and ISO. If you are shooting in auto mode, your camera decides ALL of these values for you... even if you use exposure compensation to help control the exposure you are looking for, you have no say in how the camera compensates the settings.

For example, say you want to use an exposure comp. of +1 to brighten your image - your camera may decrease shutter speed, increase (lower number, wider opening) your aperture, or increase your ISO... or some combo of this. If you are shooting a very small detail, you sure as heck want a large enough depth of field (controlled by your aperture) so that you fully capture that detail completely in focus. If your camera is making the decisions on how to control your aperture, you may have a depth of field so shallow that the image is worthless for what you were trying to show!

There is just no way around it...if you want the best images, understanding and utilizing manual mode is the only option.

The aperture priority and shutter speed priority modes are a great alternative, however you will still (most likely) use your exposure comp. quite often, which in that case - why not just shoot in manual mode? It is basically the same thing!



As far as the localized metering comment... that will definitely help your camera to understand what you are trying to expose for, however I still feel the metering systems are a simply tools used to help you guess at what your settings should be, which is why manual mode is so powerful - you can control all of your settings.

Yeah, I'm not advocating shooting in auto with exposure compensation. I stick with aperture priority mode (unless shooting action).

Using manual mode means more time spent dialing in settings (and taking more shots) for marginally better results. IMO, its a lot quicker to think... black car, +2EV, start shooting, than taking test shots and playing in manual mode.

And like you said, post processing is so powerful, you can correct bad exposure quite a bit. These days I really only sweat getting focus perfect, no way to fix that.