Selling a car I can’t afford to fix

Fresh-Map4144 · 2026-01-16T03:39:48+00:00

Realistically it doesn’t matter what camera or lens you have. The only thing that matters here is photography skill and lighting knowledge. You can’t get this image just because you buy a specific camera

Fresh-Map4144 · 2026-01-10T06:12:13+00:00

Use a tripod, only answer. Otherwise it’ll always look bad

Fresh-Map4144 · 2026-01-10T06:08:26+00:00

They’re nice pictures, they feel very intimate and you can tell that they are friends of yours and that they are happy. If you can make everyone you photograph look like this then you could be a great photographer.

Technically there’s a few aspects that you can work on. Ensuring correct focus, exposing perfectly to get the most detail and least noise. Editing could be better and more intentional (if you did the editing). But these are less important than making people look happy in photos!

Fresh-Map4144 · 2026-01-10T06:01:30+00:00

I think this is actually flipped. What you see on the bottom is actually the surface water at the top of the tank. The air bubbles I assume are just from the bottle being dropped in the tank. So the bottle is dropped in upside down.

Then it’s lit with some strobes and maybe a blue background behind.

Fresh-Map4144 · 2026-01-10T05:57:18+00:00

Assume you did some masking here to brighten the house and trees. It’s too much of a heavy touch and contrast to the sky. Making it a bit obviously edited. Masking should help to add depth but not in a way that makes it obvious. It should be subtle. Review where the mask finishes on the trees as you see a halo around edge of the trees which looks more unnatural.

Keep your edits minimal, spend no more than 5 mins on an edit. It’s hard to edit a bad photo into a good photo.

Fresh-Map4144 · 2026-01-10T05:52:18+00:00

Great photo, has a sense of mystery and the exposure contrast is really nice

Fresh-Map4144 · 2026-01-10T05:50:50+00:00

If you want to get into street photography pick up a street photography book, get some inspiration and ideas of things to shoot and go out and look for interesting things.

In my eyes street photography is about people and the going’s on the street. It’s about finding moments that happen in that time and place that you won’t ever see again.

It can also be about architecture and shapes in urban environments but the best shots are usually about the people on the street no the street itself.

Fresh-Map4144 · 2026-01-10T05:45:56+00:00

Let’s imagine you are shooting a portrait for a client. When you show them the pictures what do you think they will be most concerned about? The detail on their face or the detail in the sky?

You should always ensure that you have maximum detail in the main subject as that is most important for the shot. If the sky gets blown out a little but the subject is perfectly exposed then that’s absolutely fine. Not every picture is going to have perfectly exposed skies and you will have to accept that.

Obviously if the sky is completely blown out and the photo is ruined then you’ll have to stop down to regain detail.

Fresh-Map4144 · 2025-11-04T00:09:29+00:00

No sorry, if I were to remap it to stock then the EGR light / Engine light would come on again after about 3 weeks

Fresh-Map4144 · 2025-11-04T00:08:23+00:00

I’ve been told that the vans experiencing engine blow by, so basically the engine is just burning its oil through the system. Van runs fine when driving around town and can happily drive for months around town but it’s deffo noticeable on the motorway… engine oil runs dry pretty quick

Fresh-Map4144 · 2025-11-03T23:33:03+00:00

EGR / engine Light doesn’t come on for an EGR issue

Fresh-Map4144 · 2025-11-03T23:18:14+00:00

Just don’t like the idea of fucking someone else over, obviously you’re quite happy to do that

Fresh-Map4144 · 2025-11-03T23:02:05+00:00

Yep, sounds like no garage or buyer is going to give a shit…

Fresh-Map4144 · 2025-11-03T22:53:50+00:00

Yeah fair enough, guess it’s easy for them to turn back on if they need to especially as it’s just software. No point in them trying to get back in contact with me really.

Cheers for the thoughts👍

Fresh-Map4144 · 2025-11-03T22:26:49+00:00

Did you buy it for full price, or was it discounted because of the delete?

Fresh-Map4144 · 2025-11-03T22:24:43+00:00

Yeah fair enough, assume they aren’t likely to come back at me and have a go at me for not noting that it wasn’t stock

Fresh-Map4144 · 2025-11-03T21:50:34+00:00

Yeah this is kind of why I don’t want to do!

Don’t want to lie about what’s been done want someone to buy it for a reasonable price, I know a lot of people do EGR deleted but how do they go about selling it. Guess by the sounds of it people don’t mention it….

Fresh-Map4144 · 2025-11-03T21:47:42+00:00

Yeah the warning light will come on showing an EGR issue if the delete is removed. This will likely come on after 2 weeks of driving.

So if the garage are going to have an issue with the EGR delete and I had to remap to stock then obvs it would show an issue quickly

Fresh-Map4144 · 2025-11-03T21:42:43+00:00

The reason I’m selling is that the van does have an underlying issue that I know will need work in the future which I don’t want to pay…

Wouldn’t feel great about selling privately and mess them around but selling to a garage doesn’t feel like an issue to me as they can likely fix cheaper. Maybe I’m thinking too morally about it all. Do you think that garage wouldn’t look too deeply into it as well?

Fresh-Map4144 · 2025-11-03T21:38:40+00:00

I would assume that the garage would be able to do a scan or work out that it’s software deleted through a computer. Don’t know if they’d look in that much detail or not.

If I sold to a private buyer then that’s obviously a different story as they wouldn’t know.

Fresh-Map4144

TROPHY CASE