Selling a car isn’t easy, but as they say : a picture speaks a thousand words. We’ll show you how to get the winning shot that will sell the car quickly.

Step One:

Wash your car, detail the interior and engine, and make sure not to leave any garbage, personal items or your Coach purse on the driver’s seat. It sounds ridiculously rational, but just look at Used Car magazines and see how many of the cars displayed aren’t gleaming. Make sure there aren’t any water spots. Make the paint seamless, the chrome dazzle, the tires sexy.

Step Two:

Be fastidious as to where you shoot your car. Make sure the background is complimentary to the subject, not a distraction (i.e. telephone poles, ungainly buildings or structures, trash and debris, etc) For example, if you use a building as a backdrop, find a reflective building or one where its color contrasts with the car’s hue. Don’t shoot a modern vehicle in front of an old building (unless it’s a retro car or motorcycle). In my experience, driving your car to a nearby open field or empty parking lot yield the best results. Finding the ideal setting may seem like a hassle, but the intention is to capture your viewer’s imagination.

Step Three:

Avoid the temptation of just taking the picture from eye level. Shoot from a ground-up, 45-degree angle to give the proportions of the car more impact. Otherwise, a lateral angle slightly above the vehicle, especially if it’s a convertible, giving the car copious grandeur. Shoot about 15-20 away from the subject. You can also experiment close shots with a wide angle lens or distance shots slightly zooming-in.

Step Four:

Show towards the sun but not directly into it. Shooting in the opposite direction of the sun can cause your shadow to cast onto the car, an undesirable effect. If properly positioned the light from the sun will reflect off the car and into the camera lens, which is especially beautiful if the sun is just at sunset. Shoot all angles of the full exterior body plus some angled close-up shots of body panels, such as the example shown.

Step Five:

Like a landscape shot, lighting will effect the composition and character of your car dramatically. The best lighting conditions are usually right after sunrise or just before sunset. The light is generally warm, seductive and forgiving – the complete opposite to mid-day sun that has a tendency to burn-out top surfaces, cause murky shadows in the lower regions and thoroughly bleaches-out cockpit and engine sections. Use flash during warm lighting conditions. It is also advisable not to photograph the car from the shadow side unless you compensate with flash.

Step Six:

Shoot dark interiors without flash, light interiors with flash. Park your car completely out of direct sunlight, as it can cause ghostly (and ghastly) shadows. The wider the angle your lens is set at the better. Ideally you can shoot looking in from both the driver’s side and passenger side, while not forgetting to shoot the rear seating area, close-ups of the dashboard, center console, and instrument panel.

Step Seven:

Finally, open the hood and take a few shots of the gleaming engine compartment, then the trunk area. Generally keep your flash on when shooting these darker environments. Take close-ups of vital engine components, Vehicle Identification Stickers, books and manuals, and any repair receipts you may have.

Step Eight:

Once you have the photos on your digital camera card, carefully look through them and delete any blurry, odd or poorly angled images. Also delete any clones, and if you have say four clones of the same angle then choose the best one and delete the rest.

.

Step Nine:

Emailing your photos to anyone is sooo 1990’s. Rather, upload your incredible photos to a free image host like Google’s Picasa or Yahoo’s Flickr and email the link to potential buyers, place the link in your classified ad, and send the link to us so we can place your car on our website!

Example Photoshoot:

An example of a 1987 Porsche 928 S4 we sold last year. Pay attention to the lighting, the sun location, angles, and lens zoom or lack thereof. We recommend you print the following thumbnails out onto one page and bring with you on your shoot so you can try to duplicate.