Photo Tips

• You don’t need to be a professional photographer or have expensive camera equipment to do a great job shooting your car. The increasing resolution and features provided in any smart phone is more than adequate.
• The visual presentation of your car will determine not only how much it brings but also how quickly it sells. This is really the most important thing you can do to assist us in marketing your car. Good photography gets good results. Cars with few pictures or poor presentation tend to languish on the marketplace. The internet has changed the way people buy classic cars, and if you don’t have good or enough photos of your car they will typically just go to the next car, and not even consider your car.
• It’s always a good idea to get your car detailed prior to taking your photos and videos, you want your car to look its best! Overcast or cloudy days are the best days to do your photo shoot as bright sunlight sometimes washes out the colors of the car. The car must be outside, photos taken inside a garage do not do a car justice, lighting is often bad, and it leads one to believe it is inoperable.
• Pick a location with a neutral background like a building with a consistent pattern of siding or brick, or a hedge or something behind the car- the focus should be on the car not on the background. Try to avoid locations with other cars in the background; trees, poles or obstructions behind the car often cast shadows and should be avoided. People should never be in the photos, even in the background. Remove your license plate prior to shooting the car. Always shoot the car with the sun at your back to avoid shadows, move the car after shooting each side so that this is the case in all photos. Always step just far enough away from the car so that the entire car is in the image frame-don’t cut off parts of the car- but get close enough so that the car is the main thing in the image frame.
• We will need roughly 50 Photographs of your car to properly present it. We need shots all around the car from every angle, each interior door, dash shots, seat shots looking in from each door opening, Healdiner shots, Engine Compartment shots, Trunk shots, Odometer shot, VIN tag shots. Detail shots of interesting features are helpful.
• Undercarriage shots are very important and that is best performed with the car on a lift, but can also be accomplished by angling your camera or phone on the ground up to glance inward at the undercarriage. Do this all around the car, and get rocker panel shots shooting down the length from in front of rear tires and in back of front tires.
• Images of any flaws on the car should be taken, but should have enough reference to indicate where the flaw is on the car.
• Videos are increasingly required. Do a walk around video pointing out any flaws as you pass them. A driving video showing start up and a short drive going through all gears and stopping and turning is best. Shoot most of this showing the dash and view out the windshield as the car is driven-give the viewer the feel of what it’s like to drive or ride in the car. These should be kept to under 2 minutes, generally.