Glare on car bodywork

R

RL355

Suspended / Banned
Messages
80
Edit My Images
Yes


Hi peeps

Is there a way to deal with extreme glares on car bodywork. I have attached an image as an example which I took on a very bright sunny day.

cheers
 
Other than avoiding bright, sunny days.. you could try using a polariser filter to deal with the worst of it.
 
That what polarisers do, so thats the way to go.
 
Alastair said:
Other than avoiding bright, sunny days.. you could try using a polariser filter to deal with the worst of it.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the reply...I read up on polarised filters and see if that helps
 
Chris Primadona said:
I'm guessing thats down to the dynamic range limitations of digital cameras. If you shot raw you could probably get some results with the recovery and exposure sliders?
Click to expand...

Not really its just glare. A polariser will cut out the reflective glare pretty much completely.
 
had a 30 sec play in lightroom. Hope you don't mind.

caredit.jpg


As Tom and others have said a CPL is the best root, but as you didnt have one, you may be able to recover some.
 
Last edited:
Davec223 said:
had a 30 sec play in lightroom. Hope you don't mind.

caredit.jpg


As Tom and others have said a CPL is the best root, but as you didnt have one, you may be able to recover some.
Click to expand...

Wow what an improvement Cheers...wish I had your skills :) I am glad I havent deleted any glared images...as soon as Iam good enough with editing programs I will get back to them.
 
Last edited:
RL355 said:
Wow what an improvement Cheers...wish I had your skills :) I am glad I havent deleted any glared images...as soon as Iam good enough with editing programs I will get back to them.
Click to expand...


I have no skills, just a few sliders moved and it was done.
 
A polariser is a great aid for motorsport. The angles (Brewster's Angle, 30-40 degrees to the surface) are usually just right to cut the glare from windscreens etc. Also shiny track surfaces, and that is also often about the right rotation for darkening a blue sky simultaneously :thumbs:

They only work with reflections in one plane at a time, so in that shot you could kill them from the glass and boot, but those along the door/side would be unaffected.

One of the lighter toned variety of polariser is best, eg Hoya HD, as it only reduces the light by 1.2 stops instead of the more usual 1.7-1.9 stops. Helps keep shutter speeds up.

PS, polarisers show patterns in toughened glass. Not a problem with windscreens these days, but it's often used for side windows.
 
HoppyUK said:
PS, polarisers show patterns in toughened glass. Not a problem with windscreens these days, but it's often used for side windows.
Click to expand...

This is a very good point.. my shades (polarised) make my rear windscreen look like a Belgian Waffle when I'm driving!
 
polariser seems to be the no 1 choice.. but I was wondering (I cannot see any EXIF) did you shoot as wide and as fast as you could? could you have narrowed the aperture and still be within the required shutter speed? and would this have helped?

I am hoping someone more in the know will read this and reply, as I am genuinely wondering if it would have helped..

Ta
 
A polariser will serve you well, especially on cars and glass.
Everyone should have one and cheap as so many manufacturers.
 
Contrary to popular views around here, polariser actually doesn't polarise off metallic surface. What you see is simply underexposure rather than polarise effect. you can achieve the same thing by underexposing it on camera, or what Davec223 did in Raw processing. It works a treat on glass, so you can view the interior better, so still worth using it for that. Just remember to expose for the bodywork.
 
hairboy said:
Contrary to popular views around here, polariser actually doesn't polarise off metallic surface. What you see is simply underexposure rather than polarise effect. you can achieve the same thing by underexposing it on camera, or what Davec223 did in Raw processing. It works a treat on glass, so you can view the interior better, so still worth using it for that. Just remember to expose for the bodywork.
Click to expand...

Well, no really. You're right that polarisers don't work on reflections from bare metal (chrome etc) but they work fine on painted metal surfaces.
 
Last edited:
You could also expose for the bright area instead of the dark area and either use something like the "Fill light" slider in Adobe Camera Raw to brighten the dark areas or use a flash to fill the dark areas.

hairboy said:
What you see is simply underexposure rather than polarise effect.
Click to expand...
If it was underexposure it'd be uniform across the frame not confined to the area you've set the polariser to effect.
 
Very helpful thread for me as I'd been wondering the same!

Being a total newbie I'll await the flaming but the initial photo looks a tad overexposed to me, well overexposed for my liking anyway. I'd have shot darker for a more 'moody' picture of that beast.
 
As almost everyone else has said, polarisers are the right tool for the job - or at least, they are the right quick fix.

The best tool is in fact much better but much less easy to use, it's a scrim. A scrim is a large piece of black material with thousands of tiny holes in it. Pro car photographers have them suspended in place, the scrim diffuses the sunlight without destroying it and creates the effect of diffused sunlight. The advantage is that the angle doesn't matter, and that it works equally well on all surfaces, all of the time.
 
At a push (and as a cheap option), try shooting through your sunglasses.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top