Taking Professional Car Pictures

[PJ S]

TROOPER88 said:

I would have thought a customer would be more likely to arrange a viewing of a car presented like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221222417137?ssPageName=...

Rather than one presented badly.

Carter's nitpicking aside, there's bugger all wrong with those photos for the job they're designed to do.
Are they perfect? No
Are they miles better than the bulk of images used all over the place to show a vehicle off? Absolutely
Ultimately, you decide how much you want to make your cars stand out from the rest, but as has been said, it won't necessarily persuade someone looking for a coupé to opt for your estate model instead, but it may make someone with a preset spec in their mind, rethink the importance of the exterior and interior colours, all other things being equal.

For some people, the extra amount of time and effort to produce better than mediocre quality small images is fully appreciated and rather than thinking the worst about the car, and/or the seller, quite the opposite is the case.
For me, I say "do it", as I'm sick and tired of st descriptions, st pictures, and st trying to be sold as mint!

Edited by PJ S on Wednesday 8th May 13:19

[GetCarter]

PJ S said:

Carter's nitpicking

As I said, they wouldn't put me off buying the car... they are fine for their intended purpose. However, this is a photography forum, and they are littered with silly photographic mistakes. (That we all used to make when we first started).

[Simpo Two]

PJ S said:

For me, I say "do it", as I'm sick and tired of st descriptions, st pictures, and st trying to be sold as mint!

As I suspect there's little or no budget, you'll need to tell him how best to set up his garage/marquee in order get photos noticably better than what could be achieved 'au naturel'. First thoughts: how does he get far enough away from the car to use a garage, how does he light it, and how does he stop the marquee scenario from looking like a car that's simply been parked in a marquee?

[Paul.B]

I have bought a car sold but the guy selling the Z4 roadster. He is based in Scotland and I travelled up from Southampton. I did this because he A - He had the car I wanted and B - I could browse the 80 odd photos he took of the car I wanted, in detail and know what it was I was going to look at.

As stated above. How do people expect to sell a car with a $hite description and $hite pictures. The pictures do not however need to be shot in a studio using thousands of pounds worth of equipment and then manipulated to the point of giving a false image. Take care with venue & light and clean the car!!! People will come and buy if the price is right.

[tenohfive]

I'm going to be a bit contrary and agree with the OP here - to a point. I'm shopping for a new car and adverts have pictures on the front covers. The cars that look good get looked at first. Not only that, poorly taken photo's can put buyers off a car - for example I found myself looking at a badly overexposed photo whilst trying to work out if the leather was creased and cracked to buggery or if it was just a bad photo. It put me off going out of my way to look at a car that may be what I'm looking for. I can't see someone like Mark taking those photo's - even with a point and shoot.

Given a choice of two cars - one that's well presented, one of identical spec that isn't - I'm going to view the nice one first. I'd suggest that's more true in the case of the niche the OP refers to.

But there is a difference between crisp, clean looking shots and the studio photo's the OP talks about. Frankly to get the latter I don't think you'll manage it without sinking the money into a decent SLR, a decent lens to go with and a decent lighting setup. Then you'll need to sink a lot of time into learning how to use it properly - and unless photography is a hobby I'd be very surprised if you didn't pack it in after a few dozen hours reading up, trying to put it into practice and still not getting the shots you want.

With a half decent point and shoot you can get photo's at least as good as in that eBay ad linked above with a bit of practice. Post up some of the ones you aren't happy with, a few tips from people on here will probably get you an end result you're happier with.

[Craikeybaby]

tenohfive said:

With a half decent point and shoot you can get photo's at least as good as in that eBay ad linked above with a bit of practice. Post up some of the ones you aren't happy with, a few tips from people on here will probably get you an end result you're happier with.

Exactly this. Find a nice clean backdrop, it doesn't have to be a studio, for instance the fence in my office car park works well (see below), but a plain wall or hedge etc would also work, then take lots of pictures of the car, from different angles, moving the car if you need to. Make sure that there isn't any clutter is the shot and use the LCD on the back of the camera to check for things like shadows and reflections after you have taken the picture, move and retake the picture if you need to. There is a big difference between the time and kit needed for "professional pictures" and good quality basic pictures.



Fiat 500 Demo Car by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

[JDRoest]

Rogue86 said:

I think you missed "add fake sunset" off that list. All good car images have fake sunsets in.

Use HDR as well.....;)

[BlimeyCharlie]

To be honest, several cars I've bought, even expensive ones, have been 'presented' badly, by that I mean dreadful photography.

At the end of the day, my 'checklist' when buying a car differs to when I'm selling one.

There is an 'art' to selling anything, but that does not mean 'arty' photos.

I have a formula I stick to when selling a car, and especially photographs of the car. 'Arty' does not come into it.

[crmcatee]

As the Irish say - to be sure, to be sure, to be sure.