Your photo order should emulate the walk around, your salesman offers to the customer on the lot. The customer will be walked around the car as the salesman draws attention (zooms in) to value-added features as they walk around the car.
First shoot the 3/4 hero shot. Second, scan the 3/4 shot for value added features. Shoot a closeup of wheels, trim levels, running boards anything of value, visible in the first shot. The 3/4 shot offers context. Zoom in with your camera, the same way as salesman would draw attention… in, to shoot closeups of the features of the car. Shoot a wide landscape shot and then a series of closeups.
Reposition and shoot the wide landscape head-on exterior shot, then zoom in and shoot a close-up of anything of value visible in the head-on shot. Air dams, headlights, tow hooks etc.
Shoot one wide to get context, zoom in to get value. This is precisely the dance between shopper and salesman that occurs on the lot that has proven to be effective, on the lot.
With few exception shoppers are going to be more reluctant than the salesman. A salesman’s gonna make commission for the sale and a shopper is going to spend $60,000.
The shopper naturally sees the car from a distance. The salesman draws their attention in. A shopper will see wide, a salesman will zoom in close to show value. Your photo order should be a balance of the two throughout your photo walk around. Information in context of the walk around, modeled after the experience of being there.
Every once in a while, I have the pleasure of meeting a shopper that flew some great distance to buy a truck from one of my dealerships. And the most common comment I get is “I felt like I was right there.”
And that’s what you want.