Perspective is the hard part
A wheel shot straight-on has to become an ellipse that matches your camera angle, and the ellipse has to match at both axles. Get it slightly wrong and the car looks bent rather than modified.
MANUAL EDITING / THE HONEST VERSION
YOU CAN PHOTOSHOP IT.IT JUST TAKES ALL EVENING.
Masking an arch, warping a wheel to the right perspective and faking the contact shadow is a genuine skill. It is also two hours per wheel set, which is why most people give up after the first one.
NO MASKING · NO PERSPECTIVE WARPING · NO LAYERS
Photoshop wheels
WHY THE MANUAL ROUTE STALLS
The technique is well documented and works. The problem is that comparing options is the whole point, and every extra option costs another evening.
Shadows and reflections sell it
A pasted wheel with no contact shadow and no reflection of your paint in the lip reads as a sticker. Faking those convincingly is most of the work and all of the skill.
One edit answers one question
Deciding between bronze and gunmetal, or between two offsets, means doing the whole job again. That is the reason manual edits rarely turn into a real comparison.
FROM CAMERA ROLL TO TUNE BAY
THE SHORTCUT
Same input photo, same question, without the layer stack.
- 01
Upload the photo you would have edited
A front three-quarter shot in even light — exactly the shot you would have opened in Photoshop.
- 02
Pick the part instead of cutting it out
Choose a wheel, an aero piece or a ride height from the catalog, or right-click any part image on the web with the browser extension.
- 03
Compare the versions you never had time for
Because each render takes about a minute, comparing four finishes costs four minutes rather than four evenings.
BEFORE YOU PULL IN
MANUAL EDITING FAQ
01Is Photoshop still better for this?+
For a single hero image you intend to print or post, a skilled manual edit still wins on control — you decide every pixel. For deciding what to buy, where you need six versions and you need them today, it is the wrong tool.
02What about free editors like Photopea or GIMP?+
They can do the same job with the same technique, so they solve the cost problem but not the time problem. The evening still goes to masking and warping.
03Do I need any editing skill to use TuningLab?+
No. There are no layers, masks or selections. You supply a photo and choose a part; the fitting, shadowing and colour matching happen for you.
04Can I still edit the result afterwards?+
Yes. Renders download as standard image files, so you can take one into any editor for colour grading or a final touch-up.
MORE FROM THE GARAGE
KEEP EXPLORING
YOUR CAR. ANY BUILD.
SKIP THE LAYER STACK.
Get the answer you were going to spend an evening masking for.
Open the garage