# Sticky  How to photograph swirls to best effect using a handheld light source



## Brazo

Have been meaning to do something like this for a while!

When using your camera assuming that you have a medium grade digital compact camera and above the following settings work very well.


Flash Off*
Focus (macro) this is often symbolised as a little flower
as most cameras tend to have some degree of aperture control nowadays throw this wide open i.e f4 and below.
Autofocus

*Flash can of course be used on its own without a brinkman or sungun and can even be used in conjunction with one to great effect. However it can also add too much light and cause over exposure which can bleach out some swirls.

*The below series of pictures are taken of a swirly black panel using a 3M sun gun.*

In the first pic we have the sun gun very close to the paintwork. The camera is held close to the sun gun about 30cm from the panel. The camera was focused by aiming it half on the light and half on the dark panel and then pressing down the shutter half way until focus lock (often symbolised by a green frame in the viewfinder) was achieved. The shutter was then fully pressed.

The resulting image just shows a close up of the light source and does indeed 'look good' but does not show any defects at all. In fact a classic of the camera lieing! Why has this happened? Well the sun gun is very bright and taking a close up shot has just bleached any swirls that may appear in the image.










Next we hold the sun gun approximately 75cm from the paintwork. This allows the beam to focus properly on the panel. The shot is taken using exactly the same tecnique as above, however this time I myself am positioned a little further back say a metre from the panel and I zoom in slightly to compensate.

Here we can see swirls that are quite sharp and clear.










Next we repeat the above but hold the sun gun approximately 1.5 metres from the panel and again zoom in to compensate. The picture again nicely shows swirls but tbh no better than the pic at 75cm which really tells us that the sun gun can focus its light source quite happily at shorter distances - The brinkman can't see the next series of shots.










*The Next Series of shots are taken with a Brinkman using the same swirly panel*

Again using the same tecnique as the close up sun gun shot we have a brinkman close up. Agin the light source bleaches the swirls but as its not as powerful as the sun gun you can see a few what look like RID's. Again the camera has 'lied' as the panel is indeed quite swirly but it doesn't look perfect although looks much better than it actually is!










Next up we hold the Brinkman approximately 75cm from the panel, tuck the camera in behind it so again as with the sun gun shot the camera is about a metre from the panel. And zoom in slightly focusing on the reflected ight source itself.

And as if by magic swirls appear - albeit not many!










Ok so struggling to capture the swirls what can we do? The brinkman needs a good 1.5 metres to focus its power properly so step back, aim fire, zoom, focus on the reflected light image and shoot!!!!

And what do we have? erm swirls and lots of em!!!!!










*So to conclude *

Take a step back allow your light source to focus properly
Focus on the image of the reflected light source - you may need to zoom in to compensate for stepping back. 
Use the macro function if needed as this will help the camera focus at short distances. 
If you are having trouble focusing try and focus on half the light source and half the panel as autofocus works on contrast.

Happy Hunting!

_Next Week holographic marring_


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## ZEX

thanks , i'll try it today , and upload the pics if i did it right


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## Skodaw

Nice one Brazo -- nice little guide - been struggling to get decent shots - I now know why :thumb:


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## beardboy

Fantastic Mark.

I always struggle getting them to show on camera and now i know why - too close!

I find the halogens do a superb job though, at any distance


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## Summit Detailing

Think we'll find the quality of pics improving from now onwards:thumb:  

Good work sir


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## GlynRS2

A top guide explaining a very difficult technique. Just goes to show what an advanced piece on optically engineering the human eye is :thumb:


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## Neil_S

Great stuff Mark :thumb:


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## james_RScos

Nice one mate top advice


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## hammy2891

Great guide,
especially with the group buy for the Brinkman going on at the mo'
can't wait to give it a go when it arrives.

kev


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## CK888

*sticky*

Excellent guide Mr B:thumb:


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## phil440

Nice one :thumb: very difficult to try and get a good pic but this should help thanks


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## Mark J

Cool !:thumb: 

:speechles Gonna have to go and put some swirls on one of my wings to try it


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## Mike_001

Nice write up.

But sometimes you get decent pics without rocket science....

Look what I had to take on yesterday:
(still can't think of a word for it.....)


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## ayrshireteggy

Great guide! :thumb:


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## Exotica

Needs to be a sticky


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## n1ckt001

This should definately be a sticky.
I was going to post a question about how to get the best out of my mid range compact digital/brinkmann combo as I was struggling....
....I now have all the answers I need...great guide thanks :thumb:


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## Mark M

Top guide :thumb:


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## russell hayward

Great advice +1


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## Buzzsaw

top tip :thumb:


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## PJS

Why head on with the light source - shooting it across the area at an angle would yield a better highlight of the defects from closer range, especially on the Brinkmann.
Speaking of which, did you use a single light or the pair of them? Looks like both were on.


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## Dank84

Awesome, cheers.


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## Brazo

PJS said:


> Why head on with the light source - shooting it across the area at an angle would yield a better highlight of the defects from closer range, especially on the Brinkmann.
> Speaking of which, did you use a single light or the pair of them? Looks like both were on.


The single lamp of the brinkman is imo better than the double lamp for swirl spotting.

Re the angle, yes angling the light source can be very useful to display holograms and thats the subject of my next writeup:thumb:


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## Guest

Nice info mate like most getting a clear shot is a nightmare but thanks to your info i should inprove, spot on


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## Amcm

aww nice guide will have a go next time


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## Qook

A few more tips...

1) If you are using auto-focus, make sure you are focussing on the paint surface and not the light-source. If you look at the first photo on the OP you see that the refelction of the light is in sharp focus and the metalic flecks are not in focus. If the camera is the same distance as the light from the surface, the focal distance to the light is twice that to the paint.

2) Taking a picture at an angle to the paint and having the light-source at an equal but opposite angle will ensure that you don't appear in the picture holding the camera. You might need to clamp or prop-up you light source somehow unless you have really long arms. Like so...










This is very useful if you like taking pictures in the nude.

3) Try to get a blank, featureless surface in the reflection, as this will minimise the reflected detail and crowd the picture less. This can often be achieved by getting down low and angling the camera up (for vertical panels) and getting either the sky or ceiling in the reflection. A painted wall also works well as can the sides of fridges and washing machines (assuming these are in your garage and not the kitchen. Result...










This isn't ideal as there is the relfection of another car near the bottom of the image, but the worst of the swirling and hologramming is uncrowded.

4) Compression. Most people favour the use of the JPEG image format. It makes the image fairly small and is used by almost everything. However, compressing too much can lead to problems - it can lead to artifacting and detail loss. Have a look at this section of the above image...










This is on minimum compression, maximum file size.

If we try to minimise the filesize by increasing the compression we see that we start to lose detail and, if you look closely, you will see that the colour gradients are lost and replaced with blocky squares...










The file size of this second image is tiny compared to the first, but the trade-off is a loss of detail. If you are uploading an image to demonstrate your finish or to show the community a problem, lost detail can really trash the information that the image conveys.

Hope this helps some.


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## GeeJay

Qook said:


> This is very useful if you like taking pictures in the nude.


:lol::lol::lol:

Thanks for the additional info, Qook :thumb:
An excellent guide there, Brazo, thanks!


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## Junkmonkey

Wow I have been looking for a guide like this. Why does it always seem so simple when you know how? :speechles

Thanks very much.

JM


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## RP john

really nicely done!:thumb:


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## remal

Handy thread was going to ask about this :thumb:


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## Sweetcakes

Thank you guys, my camera is a bag of balls and I still managed to get my first picture of some swirls to come up nicely there last night on a headlight that I'm refurbing:thumb::thumb::thumb:


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## raj1vad

thanks 4 the top info, i never really thought about getting the best swirly shot, but this is an excellent thread


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## PIT

Very usefull


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## Leemack

Bump for the newbies :thumb:

Great post


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## Auto Detox

It's a sticky mate !  lol


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## Leemack

Auto Detox said:


> It's a sticky mate !  lol


:lol:

Go back to bed Lee - Obviuosly not awake am I Baz haha


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## TROGER.

Keep up the good work. Thanks its a great help


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## Adrian Convery

Cool, is there a guide for using the halogen light stands? Sometimes i find it hard to photograph that!


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## Matt_Nic

Call me lazy, but I just use the Sun lol.

Not a great picture I know, but you can see the swirls and the part I polished here clearly if you know what you're looking at.










Considering I didnt do anything flash with the compact digital camera, I just took a picture of the sun on the bonnet I thought it came out quite well. I didnt even zoom in!

Perhaps I'm not "flash" enough - pun entirely intended!


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## 4moBear

Great post OP. Very useful!


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## Sutty

Excellent advice for a newbie. Cheers


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## Stewartfinley

Cheers for this


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## Tom1357

Did you make a guide on how to see holograms/marring after? I can see swirls in paint with a torch, but I can't for the life of me see the finer ones that I assume are called holograms/marring, until very bright sun comes out, which isn't good when I'm trying to get rid of them.
Cheers.


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## SmartB

Nice guide, wasn't into photographing these things but recently had to start with it, so this'll help a lot, thanks!


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## Matty77

Wish I'd read this before attempting to take swirl pictures of a recent detail. They were awful. I'm going straight outside to test this out! Thanks buddy


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## DeepImpactAaron

I'll be trialling this one with my new Sony DSLR this evening, cheers!!


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## Jason.dodd

Awesome guide, what entry Level Camera would you recommend? 

I take it the best position to be in would be to have a tripod also?


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## Adamrt

Good stuff


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