How to Master Used Car Photography? Best Tips for Great Car Photos

In the digital age, countless aspects of our lives have migrated to the web. This includes used car sales. Did you know that in 2024, 90% of used car buyers start their shopping journey online? That means most first impressions are no longer made in a showroom but by listings posted on a dealership’s website. This makes car photography more critical than ever in used car sales.  

Great car photography can cost time and labor. Taking accurate, attractive pictures of your stock can be challenging if you don’t have much photography experience. Luckily, there are options – you can hire a professional photographer or get help from AI-based tools. In this article, you will learn how to master used car photography yourself and see what alternatives are available for you.  

Used Car Photography – Most Common Mistakes  

Taking a good picture of a used car can be tricky. At Vumo, we’ve analyzed millions of images from multiple dealerships. In the process, we’ve learned what the most common mistakes are in used car photography. Here’s what you need to avoid to ensure your pictures are adequate for car sales.  

• Bad composition – the car should be neither too small nor too big in the frame. It should be properly centered. It’s also important to pay attention to the horizon line and to keep it straight.  

• Poor lighting – car photography should be done in the right conditions. Intense sunlight can result in reflexes and sun flares, drastically decreasing a picture’s quality. At the same time, it can’t be too dark – otherwise, essential details will be lost.  

• Inconsistency – if each car on your website is photographed from a different angle, it can create a messy, unprofessional image and scare away potential customers.  

• Busy backgrounds – untidy backgrounds with a lot going on can distract the customer from the car and result in their loss of interest.  

• Timing – you should avoid pictures that suggest your car has been in stock for a long time. Using a picture with snow in the background when it’s full summer outside is bound to raise questions.  

If you make these mistakes, fixing them will do wonders for your online showroom and is bound to have a positive impact on your car sales.    

How to Do High Quality Car Photography?  

Now that you know what to avoid in used car photography, let’s talk about what you can do to ensure the top-notch quality of your online showroom. Remember these tips when planning your next inventory photoshoot, and you’ll be shocked by the difference they can make!  

• Prep the car thoroughly. This might seem obvious, but it is often forgotten! Make sure the car has been washed both outside and inside. For an extra effect, go for some detailing, like waxing. Remove unnecessary things like phone mounts and chargers.  

• Mind the light. The best time for car photography is the so-called golden hour – just after sunrise and just before sunset. That’s when the light is at its softest and most flattering. No matter the time of day, don’t take your used car pictures in full sunlight – cloudy days provide the best lighting.  

• Choose the best background possible. Avoid crowded parking lots and busy areas with many distractions. A good choice would be an empty parking lot or your dealership. The important thing is to keep the focus on the car, not its surroundings.   

• Capture different angles. When selling a used car, showing it as accurately as possible is crucial. A customer will not be convinced if they only see one or two photos. Make sure to capture perspectives like the front view, three-quarter view from the front, side view, rear view, etc. For maximum effect, consider creating an interactive 360-degree spin. If you’re not sure how Vumo can help you with it.  

• Use a tripod. It will help you take sharper pictures and maintain a consistent photo height, slow down your capture workflow, and help you focus on taking the best-quality image. Alternatively, consider using Vumo’s CS Gimbal. With its powerful stabilization and AI-based software, it yields even better results for car photography than a tripod.  

Working with Car Photography Professionals

What if you don’t want to get your hands dirty and would rather outsource the process? One popular option is to hire a professional car photographer. This approach has multiple advantages – a professional photographer will have enough experience in the field to know what works and what doesn’t for car sales photos. They also come with their own equipment and can make necessary adjustments to the pictures they take.   

Unfortunately, working with a car photography professional can have its drawbacks. Professional car photography tends to be quite costly, and if you’re a smaller dealership, such cooperation might put a strain on your budget.   

There’s also the issue of time. In car sales, getting your listing online fast is everything. Scheduling photo sessions around the photographer’s availability might cause significant delays and increase the lot-to-online time. Plus, a photo session itself can be time-consuming, which can become an issue if you have a lot of used cars to photograph.  

Working with an external professional can also mean less control and potential creative differences. Your visions might differ completely, meaning you’ll need time and energy to align your expectations.   

All in all, working with a car photography professional can be a good choice for some dealerships. However, due to potential drawbacks, you should carefully consider whether it’s the right choice for you. Ultimately, it can cause some delays and end up working against increasing your car sales.  

Leveraging the Power of AI in Car Photography

Good news: adding extra labor by taking photos on your own or hiring a potentially costly professional photographer are not the only options. Nowadays, dealerships can easily access state-of-the-art solutions that can significantly improve their car photography processes, are cost-effective, and allow for huge time savings. All that is possible thanks to the power of new technology and AI.

Vumo provides dealerships with several AI-based solutions that are true game-changers in car sales.

Thanks to CS Gimbal, car photography can be easily done in-house. The Gimbal’s powerful stabilization helps with taking sharp, good-looking pictures, while the AI-based software provides guidance and guarantees consistent, professional-looking shots. The AI allows for not only still photos but also creates interactive 360-degree spins for the ultimate experience.

Bigger dealerships can benefit from the step above – the autonomous Car Scanner robot, equipped with a track on which it moves around the car. The Car Scanner goes through the whole car photography process independently and does it much faster than a human photographer.

Both solutions are integrated with Vumography, which can also be used independently. Vumography is an AI-based software that removes backgrounds, creates attractive digital showrooms and upscales photo quality. If you opt to take photos of your stock yourself, Vumography is a great way to fix mistakes and ensure that the pictures look clean, consistent, and professional.

AI-based solutions have a number of benefits over traditional car photography for dealerships. Mostly, they’re cost-effective, yielding excellent results at relatively low costs. For example, processing a single car photo can cost less than half a dollar. Secondly, AI dramatically reduces labor, as it does most of the work. Thanks to that, a dealership’s employees can focus on tasks that are more important than meticulously taking photos. Lastly, using AI can dramatically cut the time it takes to post an online listing, resulting in much faster car sales and saving money.

Used Car Photography – What to Remember?