Best Way Spot Clean a Car for a Photo Shoot?
Discussion
I have a test drive car for the weekend (a Jag XF) and I have found a location to do some urban photos on Sunday afternoon.
The problem is that the car they have given me is black and within 200 yards on the road it is covered in salt marks. I will give it a quick jet wash when I leave home but does anyone have any tips for "on location" cleaning? It does not need showroom shine, just look clean enough for phots.
I was thinking about just buying a plant sprayer and filling it with tap water and taking a microfibre and a chamois. Anyone got a better suggestion?
The problem is that the car they have given me is black and within 200 yards on the road it is covered in salt marks. I will give it a quick jet wash when I leave home but does anyone have any tips for "on location" cleaning? It does not need showroom shine, just look clean enough for phots.
I was thinking about just buying a plant sprayer and filling it with tap water and taking a microfibre and a chamois. Anyone got a better suggestion?
xrrr said:
I have a test drive car for the weekend (a Jag XF) and I have found a location to do some urban photos on Sunday afternoon.
The problem is that the car they have given me is black and within 200 yards on the road it is covered in salt marks. I will give it a quick jet wash when I leave home but does anyone have any tips for "on location" cleaning? It does not need showroom shine, just look clean enough for phots.
I was thinking about just buying a plant sprayer and filling it with tap water and taking a microfibre and a chamois. Anyone got a better suggestion?
Plant sprayer, 50% detail spray, 50% filtered/botted water, microfibre.The problem is that the car they have given me is black and within 200 yards on the road it is covered in salt marks. I will give it a quick jet wash when I leave home but does anyone have any tips for "on location" cleaning? It does not need showroom shine, just look clean enough for phots.
I was thinking about just buying a plant sprayer and filling it with tap water and taking a microfibre and a chamois. Anyone got a better suggestion?
Job done.
clean it the best you can (esp the rims) then remove the rest in photoshop.
If you plan on using a sharpener to increase the shine of the car, you are going to want to use that first, then use the clone tool to fix the dirt.
Edit: It doesnt matter how clean you get it, when you get to photoshop, theres gonna be dirt on it.
If you plan on using a sharpener to increase the shine of the car, you are going to want to use that first, then use the clone tool to fix the dirt.
Edit: It doesnt matter how clean you get it, when you get to photoshop, theres gonna be dirt on it.
Edited by dblack1 on Friday 10th December 19:36
dblack1 said:
clean it the best you can (esp the rims) then remove the rest in photoshop.
If you plan on using a sharpener to increase the shine of the car, you are going to want to use that first, then use the clone tool to fix the dirt.
Edit: It doesnt matter how clean you get it, when you get to photoshop, theres gonna be dirt on it.
Yeah expecting some photoshopping but I wanted to stick to spot and reflection removal rather than PS-painting entire panels. I have done 20 miles in the thing so far and it now has a two tone paint job If you plan on using a sharpener to increase the shine of the car, you are going to want to use that first, then use the clone tool to fix the dirt.
Edit: It doesnt matter how clean you get it, when you get to photoshop, theres gonna be dirt on it.
Edited by dblack1 on Friday 10th December 19:36
I have some detail spray, some microfibre cloths, a chamois and a plant sprayer I bought from Halfords and Homebase on the way home which should do me ok. Ta for the tips.
This car was WAY dirty when i took the shot, took about an hour to clean in photoshop (didn't clean the rims tho).
Just use the clone tool, (cleaning the car should be the last step in photoshop).
The only place where its obvious that i cleaned it at all is right behind the front wheel at the bottom.
Edited by dblack1 on Saturday 11th December 02:38
Sorry but that HDR effect is just horrible.
My on-shoot equipment:
I take a full five litre container of water to every shoot, be it studio or Welsh mountain.
Two big sponges.
One pair of thick rubber gloves for cold weather
One container of Zip Wax. One Auto Glym blade.
Auto Glym microfibre chamois, not leather (it stinks a car out)
Several old t shirts for getting mud out of arches. (or jet wash)
One bottle of glass cleaner and several clean microfibre cloths.
Bed bath the car (using very little water) and do it away from the spot in which you're going to shoot.
Make sure the tyres are black, I use vinyl/rubber cleaner and steer clear from that nasty shiney tyre gloop - just terrible.
If you've very little or no water, just make sure the wheels are clean. Brake dust is easy to remove with a dry cloth.
Also a good tool is packets the automotive wet wipes these are great for bodywork and glass alike.
Note. Using photoshop to clean a car is just amateur and lazy.
My on-shoot equipment:
I take a full five litre container of water to every shoot, be it studio or Welsh mountain.
Two big sponges.
One pair of thick rubber gloves for cold weather
One container of Zip Wax. One Auto Glym blade.
Auto Glym microfibre chamois, not leather (it stinks a car out)
Several old t shirts for getting mud out of arches. (or jet wash)
One bottle of glass cleaner and several clean microfibre cloths.
Bed bath the car (using very little water) and do it away from the spot in which you're going to shoot.
Make sure the tyres are black, I use vinyl/rubber cleaner and steer clear from that nasty shiney tyre gloop - just terrible.
If you've very little or no water, just make sure the wheels are clean. Brake dust is easy to remove with a dry cloth.
Also a good tool is packets the automotive wet wipes these are great for bodywork and glass alike.
Note. Using photoshop to clean a car is just amateur and lazy.
Edited by pixelpimp on Saturday 11th December 19:47
Thanks all. My personal view on Photoshop is to get it right in camera as much as possible and then use PS as an emergency spot fix.
The queue at the jet wash was 5 cars long this AM so I took shakotan's advice and ended up spending 30-45 mins bed bathing the car with a plant sprayer, about 300ml of water/detail mix and almost an entire roll of Plenty kitchen roll (the Halfords microfibre lefts lots of bits on the car and was only useful for shining it up when the car was dry). As usual for me I rushed it but the car was filthy from driving 100 odd miles on the motorway on Saturday so there will need to be a little PS to smooth out some of the streaks.
Next time I am taking pixempimp's advice and actually washing the car on site I think. I know for certain that I am *never* going to own a black car, it is a nightmare to clean!
I am giving the car back tomorrow after my weekend test drive. I wonder if it is the first time someone has borrowed a demo and given it back cleaner than when they dropped it off
The queue at the jet wash was 5 cars long this AM so I took shakotan's advice and ended up spending 30-45 mins bed bathing the car with a plant sprayer, about 300ml of water/detail mix and almost an entire roll of Plenty kitchen roll (the Halfords microfibre lefts lots of bits on the car and was only useful for shining it up when the car was dry). As usual for me I rushed it but the car was filthy from driving 100 odd miles on the motorway on Saturday so there will need to be a little PS to smooth out some of the streaks.
Next time I am taking pixempimp's advice and actually washing the car on site I think. I know for certain that I am *never* going to own a black car, it is a nightmare to clean!
I am giving the car back tomorrow after my weekend test drive. I wonder if it is the first time someone has borrowed a demo and given it back cleaner than when they dropped it off
When I started using HDR I was told that people would discredit the work I did because they are against post processing. I believe that is what just happened.
First things first, I didnt put that picture up for review, only to show that even the toughest of cars can be cleaned in PS.
The picture was taken to be artistic, not to look like something out of a car magazine. When I first got into photography I took the types of shots that show up in magazines (i dont mean to compare myself to any professional here, but those where the shots that i was going for). but later i realized that what I really wanted was artistic shots, that arent found in magazines (except photography magazines). You should have realized that the focus of the picture was not to create the type of thing you would see in a car mag because the location i chose for the picture.
First things first, I didnt put that picture up for review, only to show that even the toughest of cars can be cleaned in PS.
The picture was taken to be artistic, not to look like something out of a car magazine. When I first got into photography I took the types of shots that show up in magazines (i dont mean to compare myself to any professional here, but those where the shots that i was going for). but later i realized that what I really wanted was artistic shots, that arent found in magazines (except photography magazines). You should have realized that the focus of the picture was not to create the type of thing you would see in a car mag because the location i chose for the picture.
dblack1 said:
When I started using HDR I was told that people would discredit the work I did because they are against post processing. I believe that is what just happened.
The thing you will notice about PH is that people tend not to hold back on their opinions. I don't think "discredit" is the intention, more "share personal opinion". HDR is a bit love it or hate it and people were just sharing their thoughts.Personally I have tried both methods - cleaning the object first or cleaning in PS - and much prefer to get the initial in camera image as good as I can so that I reduce the amount of time 'shopping. That is mainly because I am not very good at PS!
I will not argue against cleaning the object first... Physically cleaning the car first is recommended, BUT you will almost always find things that you missed in post processing (As I have done before).
If i previously made it sound like cleaning should only be done in photoshop, i appologize, but I personally would not worry about getting the car 100% clean physically. small details can be corrected later.
If i previously made it sound like cleaning should only be done in photoshop, i appologize, but I personally would not worry about getting the car 100% clean physically. small details can be corrected later.
Edited by dblack1 on Monday 13th December 08:17
xrrr said:
dblack1 said:
When I started using HDR I was told that people would discredit the work I did because they are against post processing. I believe that is what just happened.
HDR is a bit love it or hate itOldred_V8S said:
I have got some some lovely shots out of Photomatix that my college lecturer could not tell they had been HDR'd.
We have drifted off topic but I absolutely agree. I guess I really meant "the HDR look" (i.e. pictures like the MX5 one) for when people have Marmite opinions.
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