I want to show the vehicle in a real environment. If there's snow on the ground I want that in my pics. Relays to the client this is a current vehicle on the lot now. I've taken car pics through 9 winters. It is challenging but works. Little things like seeing the outside temp displayed while taking pics of the infotainment system lets clients know this vehicle hasn't been sitting around.
#RefreshFriday Kent Lund & Joe Pistell AND Photo Booths!
- Thread starter Jeff Kershner
- Start date
When I was a vendor, I *LOVED* snow states, sometimes, we were able to bill 2-3x to shoot the same vehicle as the seasons changed.
Now that I am on the dealer side, with limited staff, and even more limited daylight, I'd love a photo booth to be able to shoot well after the sun has dropped down.
- Apr 7, 2009
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Geez @rickyfay, you're always finding things to critique, we need your helpful tips! Photography that sells cars has to stand taller than the competition. You know that doing photos right requires alot of details to be done right.
You are right in that all of the hot options need photos (and annotations), but, you missed the AWESOME interior lighting. @ChrisR agreed with my observation:
Rickyfay, dealers need help to think thru the "TIME to execute the task". Some well meaning dealers have overly complex shots and editing. These dealers are easy to spot. They have a high ratio of unphotoed cars. They often can't get to the new cars.
I know you know all of this. I am looking forward to seeing your tips and tricks hit our forums. Dealers will seek you out when you post them.
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Tips:
Outside pics, no booth, of exterior
Interior pics in full shade, outside, no artificial light
If most of your competition has the main pic of the right front corner, make yours the left front corner
Take all pics except for engine, wheel, tire tread and sunroof (taken from inside the vehicle) at vehicle mid-height
Take pics of all features. This means you'll have several of the infotainment screen in different modes
Turn on the SIRIUS and take a pic (free for any dealership vehicle)
Rearrange your pics in order of importance. IE main pic, sunroof, Apple CarPlay, whatever is most germain to client
Use banners to spoon feed what feature you are showing in each individual pic
Stand back far enough on exterior pics to ensure no fish eyed pics but zoom in to fill shot
Newer iPhone, Galaxy, Pixel or Google Phones are fine. All have resolutions higher than your web page
A vehicle must be moved a minimum of 4 times to ensure the sun is behind you for every exterior shot
Ensure you have a clean background
Remove carpet savers for interior pics
This should give all a good start. Typical time actually photographing is about 15 minutes for a mid-priced vehicle with standard equipment up (approx 35 pics) to 25 minutes for a loaded high end vehicle (up to 65 pics). Upload time is 2 minutes. Rearranging and application of banners vary to number of pics. To all of those using VAuto this is easily accomplished.
Outside pics, no booth, of exterior
Interior pics in full shade, outside, no artificial light
If most of your competition has the main pic of the right front corner, make yours the left front corner
Take all pics except for engine, wheel, tire tread and sunroof (taken from inside the vehicle) at vehicle mid-height
Take pics of all features. This means you'll have several of the infotainment screen in different modes
Turn on the SIRIUS and take a pic (free for any dealership vehicle)
Rearrange your pics in order of importance. IE main pic, sunroof, Apple CarPlay, whatever is most germain to client
Use banners to spoon feed what feature you are showing in each individual pic
Stand back far enough on exterior pics to ensure no fish eyed pics but zoom in to fill shot
Newer iPhone, Galaxy, Pixel or Google Phones are fine. All have resolutions higher than your web page
A vehicle must be moved a minimum of 4 times to ensure the sun is behind you for every exterior shot
Ensure you have a clean background
Remove carpet savers for interior pics
This should give all a good start. Typical time actually photographing is about 15 minutes for a mid-priced vehicle with standard equipment up (approx 35 pics) to 25 minutes for a loaded high end vehicle (up to 65 pics). Upload time is 2 minutes. Rearranging and application of banners vary to number of pics. To all of those using VAuto this is easily accomplished.
Some keys to add to that, have at least a higher grade Point & Shoot, with an articulating LCD screen, extra points if it has the ability to project gridlines on the screen, to be certain photos are shot level & helping with consistent spacing.
Gridlines are great and I always have them on when shooting. In my opinion no need for articulating screen however this isn't a bad thing. I squat to midline height while taking exterior pics.
The way I take interior shots & some of the higher angle shots, the articulating screen makes it much easier (once one figures out how to shoot to the right, while looking straight ahead).
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On your "pile 'em high and watch 'em fly" new cars, where you'll have 88 Camry in one trim, I recommend randomizing the 1st shot elevation as much as possible to make them look different.
I understand that for New vehicles you don't want 88 Camry's in a row with all the same pics but the only place that will happen is on your dealer site. I'm sure that of those 88 Camrys the equipment and color varies. The easiest way to shake that up on your site is to vary the order mixing in all the colors of your vehicles so as not to have more than two in a row of the same color. Let's think about what we're trying to do here. We're trying to attract as many VDP's as possible from our 3rd party websites. If someone is on your dealer site, something brought them there. It could be a 3rd party site, they or someone they know bought from you previously or maybe you're their local dealer. In all but the 1st case of a 3rd party site, they are already specifically looking at your dealership site as their 1st choice. While we want to keep their attention it's the 3rd party sites clients we're trying to turn from SRP to VDP. The money shot for a vehicle is the front 3/4 angle, either corner, with the wheel turned away. A colored banner, bright green would be my preference, with some pertinant feature (fRebate$XX, Great Rates, Save Our Planet, for high gas mileage vehicles and hybrids, etc..) to grab attention would be my recommendation.
- Apr 7, 2009
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