Car photography tips

Most weak car photos fail on the same five things: a dirty car, harsh light, a busy background, a wide lens up close, and reflections. Fix those and a phone is all you need. The short version:

1. Clean the car first. Dust, water spots and smudged glass show in every shot.
2. Wait for soft light. An overcast day or open shade beats bright sun.
3. Pick a plain, open spot. No other cars, no clutter, room to back up.
4. Stand back and zoom to 2x. The car keeps its real proportions.
5. Hold the phone at door-handle height, not eye level.
6. Check the reflections. Look for yourself, buildings and other cars in the paint and glass.
7. Turn the front wheel toward the camera on the front corner shots.
8. Shoot the same angles in the same order on every car.
9. Show the flaws. A close-up of a scratch earns more trust than hiding it.
10. Edit lightly. Straighten, crop and match brightness. Never change the paint color.

A little prep does more for your photos than any camera setting:

Pick one spot and shoot every car there. A good photo spot has:

• Room to back up: about 30 feet on each side of the car, so you can use the 2x lens for the side shots.
• A plain background: a clean wall, a hedge, open sky or an empty corner of the lot. Keep dumpsters, hoses, service bays and other cars out of the frame.
• Flat, even ground: one color of pavement, without puddles, oil stains or painted lines running under the car.
• Nothing bright nearby: glass storefronts and white walls show up as glare in the paint.

At a dealership, make the spot permanent. Paint small marks where the front wheels stop and where you stand for each angle. Every car then gets shot from the same places, and your inventory page lines up without anyone thinking about it.

For listings, any time the light is soft: a cloudy day, or the shady side of a building on a sunny one. For marketing shots, the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset give warm, low light that makes paint glow.

Midday sun is the hardest light there is for cars. It puts glaring hot spots on the hood and roof and inky shadows under the body. If you're stuck with it, turn the car so the sun is behind you and off to one side, and darken the exposure a little so white paint doesn't glow. The camera settings guide covers exposure and lighting in detail.

A car is a curved mirror. Before every shot, look at the paint and glass with your own eyes, not just on the screen, and ask what's reflected in them:

• You. Wear dark, plain clothes. Step back and zoom in so you're tiny in the reflection, and shoot from the corners, where the doors angle away from you.
• Other cars and buildings. Move the car, not just yourself. Turning it a few degrees can swap a bright building for open sky.
• The sky in the windshield. Drop your camera a little or change your angle until you can see the dash through the glass. On a dedicated camera, a circular polarizer cuts the glare.
• Hot spots. A small, bright reflection of the sun pulls the eye. Shift your position until it slides off the panel or onto an edge.
• Your flash. Turn it off. It bounces straight back at the lens.

Give the car room. In the side and corner shots it should take up about 75% of the frame's width, with some space above the roof and below the tires. Never cut off a bumper, a mirror or a wheel.

• Turn on your phone's grid and keep the horizon level.
• Hold the phone at the height of the door handles, not up at your eyes.
• On the front corner shots, turn the steering so the wheel's face points at the camera.
• Shoot horizontal. A vertical photo of a car is mostly sky and pavement.
• Match your distance on paired shots, so both front corners look the same size.

The shot list shows where to stand for every angle.

The one shoppers don't notice. For listings, plain beats scenic, and the same background on every car beats one great shot. A row of matching photos makes your inventory look like one store, not a parking lot.

You have three ways to get there:

• A real spot on your lot: cheap and fast, but it changes with the weather, the season and whatever's parked next to it.
• A photo booth or studio: consistent, but expensive, and every car has to drive in. See what a booth really costs.
• A replaced background: shoot anywhere, then put the car on a clean backdrop. CarShots does it for each photo in about 20 seconds, with 20 curated studio, showroom, outdoor and scenic backdrops. Pick one and use it on every car so your listings match. For your own showroom or a branded background, email CarShots.

Write down a photo standard, post it where the keys live, and hold everyone to it:

• Same spot or backdrop for every car.
• Same shot list in the same order, starting with the front three-quarter.
• Same lens and height: 2x, at the door handles.
• Same kind of light: shade or cloud cover whenever you can get it, so the set matches.
• Same number of photos per car.
• Same edit: one preset, or one set of adjustments, for everything.

Then check it every week. Scroll your own inventory page the way a shopper would, and reshoot any car that doesn't match. If your team uses CarShots, an on-screen outline for each exterior angle keeps the framing the same no matter who has the phone.

Edit for accuracy, not drama. A shopper should recognize the car the moment they see it on the lot.

• Straighten and crop so every car sits level and at the same size in the frame.
• Match brightness across the set. One dark photo makes the car look like a different car.
• Keep the paint color true. Don't push saturation, warmth or contrast.
• Leave damage in. Retouching out a dent you'll have to explain later costs more than it saves.
• Hide or blur the plate if you'd rather not show it. In CarShots, ask for it in plain words: "hide the license plate". The free license plate blur tool blurs plates in photos you upload, no account needed.

You can see what clean, consistent results look like in these before and after examples.

Listing photos follow rules. Social posts and ads are where you can have fun. Car photo ideas that work for dealers:

• Detail carousel: five close-ups of one car, like the badge, the stitching, a wheel, a headlight and the gauges.
• Low hero shot: crouch at a front corner and shoot slightly up. Too dramatic for a listing, great for a post.
• Golden hour: your best car on the lot, shot at sunset from the front three-quarter.
• Night on the lot: park under your brightest lights and steady the phone on something solid.
• Before and after reconditioning: the same angle, before and after detail.
• Features in use: the third row folding, a child seat installed, the tow hitch hooked up.
• Walkaround video: CarShots makes a 15-second 360° walkaround video with voiceover and music from the car's photos.
• Delivery day: the new owner with their car, with their permission.

• Shooting at 0.5x up close, so the nose looks huge.
• Shooting from eye level, looking down on the roof.
• Other cars, people or the service drive in the background.
• Your own reflection in the door.
• A dirty car, or a stock number still on the windshield.
• A crooked horizon or a cropped bumper.
• A different background, height and order on every car.
• Too few photos: no interior, no odometer, no tires.
• Filters that change the paint color.