Dashboards
Technical Portraits can be enhanced with the addition of a dashboard drawing or vignette. If yours isn't one of the cars that has a dashboard already drawn or a vignette that is more or less the same as yours in detail and colour then it may be necessary for you to send a suitable picture, either as a conventional photographic print, a digital picture (jpeg) on a CD or emailed. graeme@classiccarportraits.co.uk No Word or other PC documents with photos imported please. Inkjet prints from desktop printers are usually unsuitable. Using Photoshop, I retouch and airbrush out the edges to create the finished vignette.

Apologies is advance if the following seems obvious and I'm ' teaching grannies to suck eggs' but the following tips may be useful:

  • Make sure the steering wheel is straight
  • Sit in the back seat
  • Shut the front doors (hinges are sometimes just in shot)
  • Remove clutter and unsightly objects
  • Remove headrests if possible, otherwise just miss these in the shot
  • Set the lens to its widest angle (usually default setting) or use a wide angle lens
  • Try to include the whole dashboard and steering wheel in the shot
  • Exposure:- I found that open top cars were fairly easy but enclosed saloons could be difficult especially those with black dashboards. You may have to have several attempts with various settings with and without flash. If its a bright sunny day choose a time around midday when the sun is high so as not to create bright, bleached out areas or shadows on the dashboard.
  • Coupés: it may be necessary to photograph through the back window outside the car (after cleaning the glass thoroughly).

If you achieve no satisfactory result (as I have have done on several occasions), or you no longer have access to the car then either do without an inserted picture (I can shift the elements about so as not to leave a void) or you can send a different photograph of the car altogether, perhaps an old shot with you and the car. see sample

Cars that at the moment don't require you to send in a dashboard photograph as they are represented by drawings:

Austin Seven

Austin A30

Austin A35

Austin Healey Sprite Mk1 to IV

Classic Mini up to 1969

Daimler Dart SP250

Ford Anglia 105E

Jowett Jupiter

MGA

MGB, MGBGT

MG Midget Mk I to 1500

Morris Minor (see sample above top right)

TR4, 4A, TR5 & TR6

Triumph Herald & Vitesse

VW Beetle (except later version at the moment)

I'm pleased to say that this page is becoming more an more irrelevant as I have developed a fairly efficient method of changing the colour scheme of my dashboard photographs when required (no extra cost)
Above: Morris Minor dashboard represented by a drawing.
Below: others, more typically , retouched 'vignetted' photographs.
Very happy with above
This is when the sun is a bit low and catches on the steering wheel. There is also some flaring on the top of the dahboard
Although, not acomplete dashboard this one is okay, apart from the fact I was unable to straighten the wheel for fear of damaging the steering. Again areas caught by a low sun but acceptable.