How to show off your work properly in photos

[zinc02gt]

I am too stupid and cheap to use photoshop... I've never touched it. My step mom swears by it, but she's a professional photographer. Needs it for fixes blemishes and all that other junk...

If you can make a swirled out car look flawless in PS I gotta give it to you.

 

[wedgie]

Just like Rasky says,different light source's are what you need when the sun isnt about.A good way of swirl spotting with out the sun is by using a Brinkmann dual xenon like Rasky has used in these pics

About the only thing you can do is use a few different types of lighting...

 

[OCDetails]

Great post. Let me add a few more tips. I like to take a picture of the sun if it happens to be an overcast day. Take this shot. The sky was clear without any haziness, yet the paint looks hazy though my test spot shows a different story.

Hazy!

Proof of Haziness (left side polished, right side not). Notice my finger is being used to help my camera focus on something otherwise it might be out of focus.

Next Day it's overcast and makes the paint look hazy!

When in fact, it's the sun that's hazy!

But later the same day, it's obviously not hazy anymore and the paint is perfect.

But talking about trick photography..check this out

The whole car looks like this

Those are great examples!! That is a perfect point to make. Just because the car is in the sun, doesn't mean it is perfect lighting. Sometimes sun shots turn out like having a 500W halogen behind a diffuser lens of some sort. Sharp reflections of the sun and sky are awesome proof of your efforts. Having the sunlight diffused behind clouds to the point that you aren't even getting shadows on the ground is just more trick photography. Still.... It gets some great pictures, and that is what we like. My only point is that if you are saying you got all the swirls out then you should take the picture with the most unforgiving light possible. Diffused sunlight is not that light.

 

[calhoun1]

I gotta say, great post.

I always strive to take the same picture Before and After in order to see for myself the difference and to document it.