Selling cars is becoming harder and harder! Competition is growing and vehicle advertising costs are soaring. With that being said you need to make sure your advertising captures the reader’s attention instantly – Do your vehicle photos grab people's attention?
Before we start, let’s just put things into perspective. Imagine you were a potential customer and you're looking for a car to buy. You are sitting down behind a computer or mobile device and scrolling through hundreds of listings. What would catch your eye? Would you click on a listing that has images that don’t meet the standard? No.
Some of the biggest mistakes dealers make in their vehicle photography includes:
- Adding no image or “coming soon”
- Adding a manufacturers stock image
- The lighting is poor
- The image of the car is too close
You probably know someone who falls into one of those categories, or you have even used something similar.
Point number 1 is by far the greatest mistake you can make – if your listing doesn’t have an image the customer will scroll right by.
We get it, using stock images from the manufacturer is an easy choice but it doesn’t show the quality of the car in its current condition.
I know what you are thinking, if you fall into category 3 or 4, you can achieve a perfect vehicle image with a mobile device, you don’t need a dealership photographer!
How to create the best vehicle photo
Lighting:
Arguably the most important part of any image is the lighting. You need to ensure your car is visible and lit correctly. Avoid any dark locations! Don’t take images of cars in garages or at night.
The best time for natural lighting is early morning (10am) or middle afternoon (3pm). This way you can avoid glare that is present when capturing an image in the middle of the day.
Focus:
Sure, it seems obvious, but you would be surprised the amount of listings online with images that are out of focus or are cropped which loses quality – we will talk about that one a bit later.
There is an easy way to avoid this. If you are capturing an image on a smart device, select the car on your screen and the camera will automatically focus to the point you selected.
If you are using a DSLR or any other camera devices you will be able to auto set focus in the settings menu.
Angles:
The biggest mistake we see is vehicles that are captured on the wrong angle. Your primary image is your selling point. Best practice for your signature image is to photograph the image on a ¾ angle.
The image should have 2cm spacing at the top and the image placed appropriately in the centre of the screen. There shouldn’t be any dead space in any area of the photo.
Distance:
Distance is so important to maintain quality of the image. If your car is to far away or too close you will lose quality if you try to edit it at a later stage. Your car MUST fit the screen evenly. As we mentioned before there should be no dead space around the edges of the image.
A good tip is to stand roughly 5 feet from the image to get the best sizing and maintain quality.
Take as many photos as possible:
Like the saying goes, the more the merrier! The more photos you have, the greater choice you will have to publish online. If you are taking an image on a mobile device there is literally no limit on the amount of photo’s you can take.
The benefit of capturing as many photos as possible is you can select which one looks the best! Never put all your eggs in one basket.
In conclusion,
Like everything, the more you practice, the better the quality of images you will take. The biggest myth in the industry is you need a professional photographer to capture high quality images but in reality, your mobile device can capture a perfect image that grabs readers attention. Using the practices above you will go along way to creating a killer vehicle image.
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About EasyCars
EasyCars by Jeal is a web-based dealer management system that eliminates common manual dealership tasks through automation.
Everything from Stock management, Advertising, Government Compliance, Business reporting, website listings, and accounting is completely automated. Using the latest technologies EasyCars removes current frustrations faced in the automotive industry – opening your dealerships doors for future growth.
Want to learn more? Contact us today on 1300 473 744 or click the button below to organise a no-obligation free demo of EasyCars – You’ll love it!