First time with a DA: great results????

[magna_power]

Now I jsut need to repeat the process for the entire car! I really don'thave enough pads, so it'll be a couple of panels each weekend i think.

[FivePoint.0]

Nice job!

[h83d]

great work for first timer ...

[Mike.Phillips@Autogeek]

Very nice results!

Nice job capturing the before and after pictures too...

[KneeDragr]

Im curious, how did you get the camera to focus on the reflection and not the paint?
I see what you mean about cheating, very effective!

[magna_power]

It's easy to capture the reflection, it's hard to capture the paint. Think of the surface of your paint as a mirror. If you take a photo of you standing in front of the mirror then you (the reflection) is in focus. This is what happens when taking photos of your paint, that is why so many people struggle to capture the swirls in their paint. The are two ways (that I know of) to overcome this:

1. Put something on your paint (I've seen mike suggest a small piece of clay) and focus on that, then you know you've focused on the paint.

2. Use manual focus if you have a DSLR.

Hope that info helps

[fahoumh]

Nice work, magna_power.

I've seen people use their finger or a small piece of tape to focus. Another trick I found that works is:
1) Put your finger down on the surface
2) Push the shutter release half-way to lock the focus...it's that half-click you feel that makes the camera beep to let you know it's focused
3) Remove your finger while still holding the shutter release
4) Push the shutter release all the way down to snap your picture

[magna_power]

Yeah the half push of the button trick is always helpful

Thanks also for the comments guys