Detailing pics and camera phone photos don't mix

[SR99]

I hate to see people's hard work at detailing go to waste by posting grainy, cloudy looking camera phone photos. A very high quality used camera can be had for pretty cheap at camera stores, e-bay, craigslist, camera forums, etc. You might even be able to trade something at no cost.

Just a passing comment...carry on

[RoadRageDetail]

And when you start taking quality pics with a decent camera, plz don't edit them with increased contrast, color saturation or sharpness. It really takes out the realism and honest results you're trying to convey to possible customers and other detailers. I haven't seen many edited pics here, but I have no problems pointing them out.

Plz don't make me the bad guy. XD

[flyinion]

And when you start taking quality pics with a decent camera, plz don't edit them with increased contrast, color saturation or sharpness. It really takes out the realism and honest results you're trying to convey to possible customers and other detailers. I haven't seen many edited pics here, but I have no problems pointing them out.

Plz don't make me the bad guy. XD

I don't see a problem with tweaking the color if it is off though. Digital cameras guess at the correct color but they very often get it wrong. Same with sharpness, slight sharpening especially after re-sizing is usually needed with any digital photo. The problem of course is oversharpening which most people tend to do. (tip: if you can tell you sharpened it, it's probably oversharpened). When I post photos I'll color correct, slight sharpening (Scott Kelby insists that all digital photos need some amount of sharpening), and fix the exposure if I over/under exposed and don't have a better shot to use.

[RoadRageDetail]

Minor adjustments to promote the effect of looking at the car with your naked eye are very reasonable. What I was referring to is using the photo editing software to the extreme and grossly exadurating the results.

"Excuse me sir, but your tail lights are purple, the trees are neon." lol

[LuxuryMobile]

Documenting your work with a quality lens/camera makes a world of difference. I use an older Canon DSLR but am looking to upgrade soon.

[Ohio Detailing]

I use both in conjunction on every job - one so I can instantly upload quickies online (Facebook) for promotion and advertisement on the fly, and the other I upload to Dropbox and my company Photo Bucket and also eventually website for high-resolution. Great post though.

[Theostoubos]

I agree. But when it comes to forums what is the highest resolution you are actually allowed to post ? Not a very high one.

This photo is taken with an iPhone 4s. Original resolution was 3264x2448. Plenty if you ask me, to display beautifully what we want.

But in order to post it it had to be scaled down to a mere 1024x768.... They still do the job though.....

[Flannigan]

I think the quality of work is more important than the quality of camera. In this day and age cell phones are coming with cameras that are as good, if not better than some point and clicks. I know my iphone camera is capable of taking great pictures if I want to post up a picture on Facebook while I'm working on a car.

As for editing I agree that you shouldn't over edit pictures to trick people into thinking you did something that you didn't. however I have no problem with editing pictures to correct color and add borders. I take pictures with an older D50 with a couple different lenses. the pictures usually look great, but sometimes the color is off a bit from how it actually looked in person. Doing a color auto correct is fine to me, it makes the pictures look like they are suppose to and how it actually looked if you were there. Just my .02

[VR8]

I hate to see people's hard work at detailing go to waste by posting grainy, cloudy looking camera phone photos.

I'm in agreement with the OP comment, "grainy, cloudy looking camera phone photos ...". I don't think he was referring to ALL camera phone photos. Obviously the iPhones (and similar) are producing fine quality shots.

[magna_power]

I'm going to chime in here, as I consider myself a decent amateur photographer, something i've been doing for years, and I understand the mechanics of it very well.

In my opinion, the 2 big advantages that a DSLR has over other cameras is:

1. They have much bigger sensors, this allows them to have more pixels, and more importantly, bigger pixels.

2. Better lenses, which allow more light gathering and the ability to easily control aperture and focus.

The best place to see a difference in a DSLR and an iPhone is to take a photo in a darkened room, this is where you will see the greatest difference between them, as the large pixel size and larger lenses allows much greater light gathering ability, giving truly superior photos.

The second best (or maybe best, feel free to argue) it to try and capture sporting moments, once again better ability to gather light wins, this case in the form of being able to use a significantly shorter shutter speed (which freezes the moment) for the same overall exposure (brightness of the image). That is, you get less blur.

IF, however, you are in a very bight or well lit location, taking a photo of a stationary object, the difference start to reduce. The main advantages would then change to being able to easily focus (ie, manually focus on the scrathes) and to be able to change the aperture (this alters the depth of field, or how much is in focus away form the object in the centre of focus).

I've used both my DSLR and iPhone 4 to take photos of the swirls in my car (which I'll be buffing out soon!). The iPhone does a good job for a camera phone and easily a good enough job for on here MOST of the time. MY DSLR is easier to use though, and I have much more control, but I am a very experienced user.

My opinion, if you do this for a living, get a DSLR, even it's it's an old 6MP one, and learn to use it and take great photos of your work (and family/kids, if you have young kids go buy one, you will never regret it!!!!). An old 6MP DSLR will outperform a new 16MP point and shoot any day of the week, especially for kids running around having fun or pictures inside, ie parties. If you do this as a hobby and like putting pics on the forum, use whatever, and get into good light.

Epic post, clearly something I love, sorry if it was a bit long!