Taking Professional Car Pictures

[TROOPER88]

Hi
I deal in a few retro classics and have always done my best to advertise with the best quality pictures possible.

I see more and more companies and dealers are using specific studios to achieve the best looking pictures.

Any tips on how this can be achieved without a studio?

Forget photo shop as I want natural looking pictures that have not been played about with.

As an example I have just tried photographing a 911 by the river surrounded by lovely woodland. Even though this sounds like the perfect location, the sun makes the pictures dark and the reflections produced do not give an accurate appraisal.

I have a large garage which at the moment is being used for other projects, when empty I had the idea of painting the one side wall bright white as a back drop for images?

Would buying a marquee work as all 4 walls would be white?

At the moment I plan on waiting till the sun goes in before attempting again.

Cheers

[Craikeybaby]

Have you tried a circular polarising filter to cut down the reflections?

[Simpo Two]

I'd say that the only way to get studio-looking hair, sorry cars, is to use a studio. A marquee will give a very flat light and what do you do about the floor and floor/wall join? A white garage will need lighting (and contol of light), and can you get back far enough to shoot without excessive wide-angle spoiling perspective?

Have a look at studio photos and see if you can 'reverse engineer' them...

[TROOPER88]

Craikeybaby said:

Have you tried a circular polarising filter to cut down the reflections?

Hi
No...

To be honest I am not using a professional camera with the option of changing the lens or filter...

I could go down this route but believe that I could take decent pictures with a basic camera if the conditions permit.

Maybe I am wrong....

[Mattt]

Post up your current attempts, and people can provide feedback/tips.

[LongQ]

TROOPER88 said:

I could go down this route but believe that I could take decent pictures with a basic camera if the conditions permit.

Maybe I am wrong....

The difference is that if you are shooting in a situation where you cannot control all the variables relatively easily - outdors for example - the "conditions permit" part of the equation can be very rare. The UK can be extremely variable minute by minute. Florida and similar are likely to be a bit more consistent (and with light) more of the time. (but even then you need to gain some further control.

In a studio, suitably equipped, you have total control. (Potentially. But not that specialist studios tend to be very specifically designed for large product shoots and often have neutral grey walls and no sharp wall/wall/ceiling joins.)

If you saw the shots Mark Mullen produced and posted a few days you will have seen the middle ground where what is available on the day can be adjusted by good use of portable lighting. However that comes with a cost (the lighting kit) and would typically benefot from a half decent camera. In fact unless you are prepared to spend time checking whether alternative mehods of getting flashes to fire will work well enough with your camera set up the chances are that a reasonable good camera body would be a requirement. As a minimum something that has a flash hot shoe just to make life easier

(BTW I mentioned Mark's shots since they would seem to be representative of the sort of images you are trying to reproduce. Chances are you would need a little post processing as well to "help" the image. That would be quite normal and has always been the case with photography.)

Having made those observations I'll leave it to the experts to comment further.

[markmullen]

I wouldn't bother.

I am both a photographer and the Sales Manager for a Porsche specialist.

I could take each car out onto the North York Moors, I have enough kit to sink a ship, including portable studio lighting. I could go and spend an hour or two taking arty shots, then process them using industry standard software (which alone cost me a grand) and make some beautiful shots of each and every car.

Do I? No, I put them out on the road outside our showroom and use a point and shoot to get a basic set of photos, inside and out, front 3/4, rear 3/4, side on, interior etc. It takes 5 minutes, and then I can spend the rest of my time selling cars.

Do I think I miss any deals for not having artistic shots? No. Would I miss any deals by spending a lot of my time out playing with my cameras and making wall worthy art out of our stock? Definitely.

[TROOPER88]

markmullen said:

I wouldn't bother.

I am both a photographer and the Sales Manager for a Porsche specialist.

I could take each car out onto the North York Moors, I have enough kit to sink a ship, including portable studio lighting. I could go and spend an hour or two taking arty shots, then process them using industry standard software (which alone cost me a grand) and make some beautiful shots of each and every car.

Do I? No, I put them out on the road outside our showroom and use a point and shoot to get a basic set of photos, inside and out, front 3/4, rear 3/4, side on, interior etc. It takes 5 minutes, and then I can spend the rest of my time selling cars.

Do I think I miss any deals for not having artistic shots? No. Would I miss any deals by spending a lot of my time out playing with my cameras and making wall worthy art out of our stock? Definitely.

Hi Mark
Thank you for your input.

I appreciate what you are saying and when you have many cars to sell with a showroom etc I fully understand.

If I am selling just the one car every few weeks with no showroom etc it is essential it is advertised to the best of my ability.

I will take some pictures tomorrow: weather permitting and put them on here to be looked at.

What do you lot think of the pictures used by this company in Scotland:

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

Cheers

[LongQ]

So there you have it.

I think the auction houses selling with high values, high commissions and glossy catalogues in mind may be in a different position and need (or feel they need) a top quality arty sort of image array to attract their key punters (and maybe distract from the state of the offerings). It you are operating in that sort of market you might feel a need to do something similar but if not then maybe you just need to pick a half decent moment and have enough nearby locations around (including you garage perhaps) to keep you happy. Enough might just be one place that is relatively clutter free in the background.

If you think you get too much contrast on most shots you should be able to get some software to tone that down when absolutely necessary. Or maybe tweak some settings in the camera to give you a good start.

[Simpo Two]

Practically speaking, Mark has put his finger on it. I fully appreciate your desire to get professional looking photos - as they say a photo is worth 1,000 words and the instinct is that the better the photo, the quicker the car will sell, or it will sell for more, or you may just be very proud of it and want to do it maximum justice.

However if I put myself in the buyer's seat for a moment, I'm looking for a particular car/make/model/colour/condition. Let us say (plucks from air) a DB7 Vantage Volante in Chiltern green over magnolia. If I find an advert for one and the spec looks right I'll express an interest. I'm judging the car not the photos.

[JohnS]

Some dealers are now offering live video tours of cars, which would appeal to buyers (me included) if they are travelling a long distance to view a niche car.

[markmullen]

TROOPER88 said:

Hi Mark
Thank you for your input.

I appreciate what you are saying and when you have many cars to sell with a showroom etc I fully understand.

If I am selling just the one car every few weeks with no showroom etc it is essential it is advertised to the best of my ability.

Bear in mind that some of the car I sell run to in excess of half a million pounds I really wouldn't get too hung up on the photos, if a buyer wants more, or specific photos they'll ask for them.

[Simpo Two]

JohnS said:

Some dealers are now offering live video tours of cars, which would appeal to buyers (me included) if they are travelling a long distance to view a niche car.

I would hate that. I'd much rather look at 10 photos, bish bash bosh, than have to sit through 2 minutes of some bloke waving a camcorder around.

[TROOPER88]

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.

[Simpo Two]

They are simply snaps (though slightly too big to fit on my monitor which is a careless oversight).

If you like those there's nothing to worry about; carry on!

[Gemm]

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.

From a photographer's point of view, these are just snapshots. There's nothing professional looking about them. But I think they are definitely more than good enough for selling cars on ebay.

[GetCarter]

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.

God those are crap. I mean... not just out of focus, things sticking out of the top of the car, inept DOF, but reflections of the tog in the bodywork. How many mistakes can you make on one shoot!

But to the O/P... the pics wouldn't put me off. Not interested in art when I buy a car, just the car.

Just take snaps (not as bad as the above if you can help it)

ETA.. I'd HATE to see the one presented badly! [/shudder]

Edited by GetCarter on Tuesday 7th May 19:49

[Simpo Two]

GetCarter said:

But to the O/P... the pics wouldn't put me off. Not interested in art when I buy a car, just the car.

They're not reflections of the tog, it's airbrushed on Same goes for his assistant with matching stripey tee-shirt...

So...


1) Find a nice background - gardens, posh house, castle etc.
2) Choose a day of light overcast to minimise deep shadows/glare/flare
3) Work with the light behind you
4) Shoot from a decent distance to stop car looking blobby from excessive wide angle
5) Try to use natural light, as flash will just ping on the bodywork and look bad and bugger up the exposure
5a) If you see you reflection in the bodywork, move until you can't
6) Resize photos to 800px wide
7) Make advert
8) Sell car

[GetCarter]

Simpo Two said:

GetCarter said:

But to the O/P... the pics wouldn't put me off. Not interested in art when I buy a car, just the car.

They're not reflections of the tog, it's airbrushed on Same goes for his assistant with matching stripey tee-shirt...

So...


1) Find a nice background - gardens, posh house, castle etc.
2) Choose a day of light overcast to minimise deep shadows/glare/flare
3) Work with the light behind you
4) Shoot from a decent distance to stop car looking blobby from excessive wide angle
5) Try to use natural light, as flash will just ping on the bodywork and look bad and bugger up the exposure
5a) If you see you reflection in the bodywork, move until you can't
6) Resize photos to 800px wide
7) Make advert
8) Sell car

/\ What he said.... and sell lots of cars actually.

[Rogue86]

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