Setting up a Photo Booth

[TomLaPointe]

I DO NOT work for AutoExact or 360booth, but I have done some contract work for them in years past. Owner Jay Smithweck is a car biz guy who pioneered inventory hosting and photography services nearly 20 years ago. His photographers have shot more than a million photos, so he has a VERY good idea of all of the factors and has installed this booth for something like 30 dealers now.

Not inexpensive, but done right - 5500 degree kelvin LED bulbs, no hotspots. His history serving car dealers and major groups means he'll be there down the road for any maintenance issues. Cars look gorgeous. He'll fly in at no charge to help pick the best location...

He'll be at NADA Booth 6057W

• 727-422-2080
• [email protected]
• www.facebook.com/autoexact

 

[Tallcool1]

All of these photo booths and staging areas are really cool, but the post that I like in this thread is the link to the Ecarlist Basics of Great Vehicle Photography article.

Personally, I don't want my people spending all of their time making our inventory look like something that it isn't. I want to capture an image of what my customer is going to see when they come into the store. I want my cars to look like what they are.

Now that certainly doesn't mean that we are going to picture them all pigged out and filthy like they were when we traded for them. We are going to clean and detail them. We are going to take the pictures in the most favorable lighting conditions. We are not going to spend a bunch of time and money to create an image that is not a reasonably good representation of what the vehicle is.

If you have to put an overlay on the photos that say "Actual Photo", or "NOT a stock photo", why not save yourself a whole bunch of time and money and just download stock photos?

We have received a great deal of positive feedback from customers regarding the quality of our photos. They tell us that our cars look like the same car that is on our website. They tell us that there are no surprises with us. They tell us that they feel they could TRUST us because they didn't feel misled by a photo that was 10 times better than the actual car.

Don't get the wrong idea here, I am certainly not criticizing anyone here. I am in a small rural market, and I don't have the competition that many of you have. This is just the way I see it.

I really liked and learned from the Ecarlist guidelines.

 

[joe.pistell]

I'm with clint, sterile photo booths suck! I'll add an idea that'll sell some cars.

Put some people in the pics & tell a story!


Show off that THIS car is just coming out of detailing. Let them see your process, your people, your story.

HTH
Joe

 

[joe.pistell]

Friggin brilliant. Works on a tiny footprint (which most of players have to work with). 2 thumbs up.

 

[TomLaPointe]

All of these photo booths and staging areas are really cool, but the post that I like in this thread is the link to the Ecarlist Basics of Great Vehicle Photography article.

Personally, I don't want my people spending all of their time making our inventory look like something that it isn't. I want to capture an image of what my customer is going to see when they come into the store. I want my cars to look like what they are.

I really liked and learned from the Ecarlist guidelines.

Respectfully, since web shoppers aren't on your lot yet, your FIRST IMPRESSION may actually be the photo of the car. Let's face it, many (even most or all) dealers do things to cars to help give them a great first impression that may not be permanent - touch up paint, black on bumpers and moldings, and tire dressing all make the car present well, but could be argued that they aren't the REAL car. It's not like we're suggesting oil additives, temp a/c recharge or even replacing dash clusters with lower miles (it happens). If you are trying to sell pre-owned cars in the $20k and up market, and you aren't the absolute cheapest on the web, you really should do everything possible to present it as a rock star. Just like you wash them every week and maintain the appearance of the store.
A booth isn't for every store, but it is for every store in a high-competition market where every detail makes a huge difference.

 

[WilliamWalker]

From my experience photo booth setups are only as good as the person behind the camera... The early posts in this thread I believe really illustrate this. Especially Eley's post about the 4Runners.

We shoot only outdoors currently and I believe our results are better than most if not all of the booth setups I have seen thus far. Excluding Catz/RK. Even Lund I can not see those photos as any better. We are in Washington so we go threw the Sunny days (low sun in the winter)/ Rain and all that. Only difference is we spent good money on the Lens/Body (No flash) and have someone that has real photography experience. Just seems if you are going to spend $$$$ on a booth, don't hire the $10.00 hour guy that might not show up one day for work and has only been a lot attendant or detail guy previously.

That came off like a rant. Not intended.

All the shots I attached are done in either Horrible sun, Rain, Sun/clouds changing every minute. Spend money on the reliable quality employee in my opinion or a service that provides that. If you have to deal with a lot of snow, slightly <--- different story I believe.

 

[joe.pistell]

I was admiring your work William, which post shot editing tool do you use? Iphoto is awesome. These image improvement tools are quite amazing.

 

[WilliamWalker]

Hey Joe,

Thanks for the compliment. Adobe Lightroom. It has very good batch editing capabilities. Editing around 300 photos ends up taking roughly 30minutes

 

[DuffyL]

Hello everyone. I'm somewhat new to the forum. Been lurking for about 6 months and have enjoyed many of the forum posts. I thought I would chime in here and add a few pearls i have learned over the years.These are just some of the pearls of wisdom I have learned after having built several photobooths now for dealers in my area both with a turntable and without. Some of you may agree or disagree with them but it is what I have found works for best in a volume dealership photobooth and helps make the phone ring. Understand I’m not saying these items are a must. It all depends on budget and importance. With the disclaimer said I hope some of what I have written below helps those just getting started.

1. Patience! Just know It’s a compromise between the perfect photograph and need to move volume through the studio. We shoot 20 to 30 cars per day on an average day. 40 on a busy day. New and used. We shoot every car. NO stock photos reused. If it’s a HIGHLINE CAR spend the extra time to get the right shots but remember time is money if its an $80K plus car its worth the time and money to get more detailed pictures! We average 10 to 15 minutes per car. We post 35 to 80 pictures per vehicle depending on that vehicle.

2. Reflections. You’re going to get reflections and some abnormalities. Deal with it. As a photographer you want a perfect picture. It’s not going to happen. You are going to miss things and you have to remember the pictures are for the selling of a car not to hang on the wall. The point is to make the phone ring for the salesman to get the customer in the door.

3. NUMBER ONE MISTAKE DEALERS MAKE IS USING A CHEAP CAMERA. Your picture is 60% equipment and 40% skill level. Sorry if that offends anyone. Using a crop sensor camera is defeating the purpose. Spend the money. Buy a Professional Full Frame quality camera like a NIKON D700 or better (I use a Nikon D4. Sorry not a canon fan. Colors are sharper with Nikon IMO) and a 2.8 17-35, or if your studio is big enough a 24-70mm lens and be done! A full frame sensor camera has a wider dynamic range and gives you a more consistent reproducible color result. What does that mean to you. The colors will be more true and sharper and once the booth is setup and lighting adjusted you can shoot EVERY CAR at the same aperture and exposure and never change the settings. After that all adjustments are done in Lightroom or whatever post editing program you chose to use. That means you can take someone with a little photography experience and teach them to take pictures.

4. NUMBER TWO mistake. I see this so often. SET A CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE on your camera. Do not use the AUTO WHITE BALANCE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One more time SET A CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE!!!!!!! Why. Your white balance tells the camera what is true white and what is true black. All other colors are determined in the camera after these are determined!

5. STUDIO SIZE. Anything bigger than 19x27 will work. Our Cadillac studio is 19x27. And that’s before drapes are installed. Bigger is better but to big can also cause lighting problems. It all depends on if you can afford a turntable. Contrary to some opinions turntables will always give you your best pictures as you will ALWAYS have the same exposure for each picture. If no turntable in the budget, best size would be 30’W By 38’L which will give you 5’ behind the back curtain to put a desk and computer to edit pictures.

6. FLASHES and STUDIO LIGHTING. Vehicles are photographed with down lighting not Rembrandt style. Meaning all lighting is from above the cars not like a portrait where lighting is in front or to the side of you!! Like a large softbox above the car. A good flash strobe with transmitter on the camera also helps take everything off the floor and out of the pictures

7. Normal ambient room lighting. NEVER use fluorescent lights or sodium lights anywhere in the room even just for normal lighting!!!!! They give off a yellow/amber light and change the color of everything. If possible use High or low bay lights (Metal Halide) they give off a white day light and you won’t be fighting it in pictures even if using strobes.

8. Flooring. This is important as it is your number one high maintenance item. Never use a solid color. Can you yes! Should you? Not in my opinion. For a perfect picture yes but remember we are shooting cars for a website for sales and you have to have flooring that doesn’t require any touchup after each car. In the past we have tried several different combinations of flooring. What we have learned is this. A medium gray speckled carpet or like Joe Pistell uses the speckled garage floor coating. The garage coating works great but mopping is required daily as also touch ups. We have found that a medium gray floor with black carpet runners supplied by a vendor cleaned weekly is what works best. Is it the best for a picture no! But volume is the key and sacrifice has to be made somewhere to keep the cost and maintenance down.

9. Drapes. Color and material choice is the key. White is great but you will have more noticeable shadow lines and it has a higher maintenance as with anything it will get dirty fast and dingy. Been there done that. Navy blue also nice but changes the colors to much and not enough contrast in the colors. That said black is what we have found to be the best for 98% of the car colors. Again it’s a compromise and black is the best so far. Drape material is of the upmost importance!!!!! Most materials will reflect the light and turn colors even with strobe and you end up compromising on your final edit. For instance you will want to use a THICK material so ambient light does not shine through. We have used several different materials but for cost reasons canvas was our choice. But when shooting it will bounce some light and can in some instances look a bit gray. The last studio I built I finally spent the money as I was making the drapes and used black velvet. Velvet absorbs the light and softens and lig t around it. Is it pricey yes but worth EVERY dime spent on the final product. In highline cars Pleats would be a nice addition but costly . But again improves the final product. Do you see the drape reflections in the car. Of course! Are they noticeable? Not really. If you want to sit and scrutinize every picture you will always find something wrong with it.

10. The Scrim. What is a scrim? It is a light diffuser between the strobes and vehicle in the studio. We have ours made to cover the entire room and is stretched tight to the frame the drapes are hung on. Our scrim is made from 1.5 stop silk. Never use ripstop nylon material as the lighting and flash will not be consistent. Cost is minimal between the two materials

11. Ceiling height is very important. If you have a 13’ ceiling height or more your golden if not your scrim will show in some of your photos and more post editing time is needed in photoshop to pull the scrim up. Again we have a limited amount of time allotted for each car

12. I know this goes without saying but the car should be frontline ready. That said we do do prelims on some cars just to get them posted for sale and will reshoot after recon is done on used cars.

13. Taking the pictures should be viewed from the eyes of the buyer. We have spent a lot of time and investment in questionnaires and or surveys finding out what makes customers look at our pictures. The first picture is critical. The driver’s side oblique taken down low was one of the most appealing. The side shot the least appealing. From there the customer wants to walk around the car. Some liked the higher angle shots but most liked the view taken about 24-30 inches off the ground with the exception being trucks and lifted 4x4’s. The same goes for the interior. They like to view the pictures as they were sitting in the car. From steering wheel to odometer, the passenger seat, radio or console area and such. If it was a 2 door few cared about the back seat and with a 4 door they all wanted to see the back seat and legroom and any accessories like DVDS or 12v plug ins or ac controls.

14. Tires and wheels. We found very few wanted to see just straight tread shots. Most customers wanted to see the wheel and top view of tire. They can see some tread depth and also see if there are any scuffs or blemishes on the wheel itself and all wanted to see all four wheels. Important note!! Flashes tend to gray the tires. Fix them in post edit and make them black!!!!!

15. Inventory control. In the beginning we used to never show the stock number in the pictures with vin numbers. Again after talking with the sales people and the customers it is very important for both parties to view these to get the accurate vehicle and know what vehicle is in question on the website even though that information is also posted on the site. Again ease of use for the customers to help them want to pick up the phone and call.

16. Editing. After many hours spent editing and phone calls form salesman and customers alike. A large good quality monitor is very important when editing the pictures. I cant stress this enough!



Again my disclaimer. These are just some of the pearls of wisdom I have learned over the last few years. After having built many photobooths now for dealers in my area both with a turntable and without. Some of you may agree or disagree with them but it is what works for us here and helps make the phone ring. Understand I’m not saying these items are a must. It all depends on budget and importance. I hope this helps some of you as the trend moves to photobooths for internet sales.

 

[DuffyL]