Darn! You're giving away our secret! But you are absolutely right - photos tend to hide swirls. It isn't just the sunlight - frequently pictures focus on the reflected objects, which are a distance from the lens to the car to the object. this throws the car surface out of focus obscuring stuff.
When I wrote my
article on lighting for detailing I did a similar shot sequence, only this time, the same surface undeer different lighting, with NO treatment in between. Outside it looks gorgeous. Inside under the halogen it looks pretty ugly.