Polished Bliss: Audi S5 - Midnight Sun in the Morning Sun

[WX51TXR]

I had not originally planned to write this detail up, but after 24 hours of hard graft over the weekend I was rewarded with soft sunlight this morning during the final wipe down, so out with the camera it was then! To cut a long story short; less than 500 miles on the clock, badly damaged from new by the Audi dealership, fresh from the bodyshop for minor correction. No major headache, but 24 hours needed in total to make it perfect; no compromises allowed. It was polished with Menzerna, and finally protected with the Blackfire twins at 1am this morning...

Thank you mother nature!

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[Nilz]

Amazing!!!

 

[Caesium]

The pics look great, what sort of settings do you use on your camera, full auto?

 

[WX51TXR]

Not usually, but I can't recall exactly what I used above. Generally I use aperture priority so I can precisely control the depth of field, and resort to using a tripod when this results in very low shutter speeds. Other than that, I use auto white balance, ISO 200-400 (sometimes 800 inside), standard picture control, and active d-lighting set to normal (as I have no time for RAW processing, and this guarantees no nasty surprises!). In photoshop, I simply resize, sharpen using a 50% unsharp mask, add the border and save for web.

 

[dantdi]

Wow shiney!!
Wanna wash mine?

 

[WX51TXR]

If you want to pay me to do it!

 

[dantdi]

Lol. Tell ya if ya could get my A3 looking like that! You must be over moon!! really looks good mate!!
How much? lol

 

[DriveByShooters]

Stunning....as always....Top work!

 

[WX51TXR]

Lol. Tell ya if ya could get my A3 looking like that! You must be over moon!! really looks good mate!!
How much? lol

Service details thoroughly explained here...

http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/acatalog/detailing-services-service-options.html

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[bl_1969]

It's been a long time since I seen such a cracking job!
I may give you a little visit with my A3.

If I say more nice things will you give me a discount hehehe

Seriously tho, sweet looking shine on that bad boy! Well done sir!

 

[Toxic]

wow, thats some great finish on the car Rich. Still using Menzerna then have you tried any other products yet to get a better finish?

 

[Ibzzzzz]

Where in the UK are you because its always sunny there!!! Top work man!

 

[Toxic]

Aberdeen afaik. I guess they only come outside when its sunny any other form of weather and they're locked inside working on someones car

 

[lewis]

Oh my god. Nice car. Amazing finish.

 

[WX51TXR]

Lol, aye, the sun hasn't been seen up this way for a while now - boo! In terms of polishes, Menzerna still rocks my world. I like 3M and Gloss It too, but Menzerna is more intuative. 3M is a must on the rotary sometimes for tougher jobs, while Gloss It requires a change of method to a longer work time, but in return gives a smoother paint finish - I'm going to be working with Gloss It polishes a lot more in the future for this reason.

 

[NHN]

Dont you think using photoshop to sharpen the picture is kinda a cheat really as does it make any difference to an actual on eye view as opposed to a camera image sharpened Rich?

Just curious it has to be sharpened.

 

[WX51TXR]

Most digital images are actually quite soft, particularly if you switch off all the fancy processing functions on the camera. Thus, to my eye, what the camera records is a little softer than what my eyes see. Accordingly, I use the unsharp mask in Photoshop restore the picture to what my eyes saw at the time of shooting - nothing less, nothing more. A 50% unsharp mask is very mild in terms of the amount of sharpening that can be done, and a lot less than what would be used as standard for print purposes, for example. Here are a couple of shots showing the difference...

The original shot taken from the camera, cropped to size...

The same cropped shot with a 50% unsharp mask added...

The same cropped shot with a 100% unsharp mask added...

As you can see, the difference is slight, but important all the same. My view is that I do not wish to present pictures that sell my goods or services short, but equally I do not wish to mislead customers by presenting images that are overcorrected and unrealistic. Accordingly, I'm comfortable with the process used above.

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[NHN]

Hey cant fault you for a honest reply, thats the problem no camera seems to convey what we see anyway, so unless face up to the item pictured its hard to really show correctly, but fair play if you honestly say its looks like what you see at 50% then have to take you on your word, but no one I've heard has ever said anything bad about your work fella so must be exactly as you display in the photos, very professional & yet also down to earth, like that conduct in someone offering these kinda services.

 

[WX51TXR]

I don't think it would be possible to survive, let alone thrive, at the level we are working at unless everything was 100% on the straight and narrow, and we wouldn't have it any other way - it's an enjoyable way to work.

 

[S3fan]

good little post this....not a great lover of current Audi models, but I do like the S5....and interesting words on photography. Nice one.

 

[NHN]

Yeah I have to say its nice for once to have a tame thread with constructive posts, rather than blurb that I openly hold my hands upto doing on some, lol

 

[Matt]

Is this your own car? Looks stunning!

 

[R55_SND]

nice work guys as usual you never fail to impress! really like this car!

 

[WX51TXR]

Is this your own car? Looks stunning!

I wish! I blanked the plate in photoshop but it looked cack (too much grey lol!), so I just cut my plate off of an image of my old Leon and pasted it in place - much nicer for the pics! Rather amusingly I ping about in a C2 VTS these days, as it's cheap as chips to run and all I can currently afford!

 

[Matt]

Ha ha that explains it! Thought you had been treating yourself!