18 September 2024
360º car photography tips
Would you also like to take professional photos of your car stock?
For car dealers, photographing new arrivals is of great importance. Especially as the online showroom becomes increasingly important. The shift from offline to online increases the importance of investing in attractive online car presentations. However, it is a time-consuming job to take good car photos suitable for the Web. Moreover, developments in 360-degree photos and videos are just barely keeping up.
It is a waste to post hastily taken photo series on the Internet; they often detract from the beautiful car stock. Many car companies run into the same problems regarding car photography:
✓ Distracting background that does not highlight the cars optimally.
✓ Inconsistent photos, making the result look cluttered.
✓ No ideal lighting and distracting light from outside.
✓ Often stabbing to have the car in the photo from all angles.
Professional photos for large and smaller car dealerships
We find that large car companies want to photograph very many cars per day. Sometimes as many as 30 to 90 per day! For a large car company, efficiency, speed and reliability are therefore of great importance.
In addition, smaller parties in the automotive industry nowadays also strive for high-quality photo series, even if they only photograph a dozen cars per week. For car companies, setting up a suitable photo room is usually the biggest challenge.
Choosing a suitable photo location
What should you look for when looking for a photo space within your company?
- Logical positioning
The space should be conveniently positioned in the routing. Especially if you want to photograph many cars per day, this is very important. It is wise to place the photo studio close to your car wash or polishing department. - Easy entry and exit
There should be no obstructions. With the right software, you can program your cars’ entry and exit positions into the turning program. Then it does not matter if the drive-in position is not the correct photo position. - Avoiding daylight
Natural light is beautiful, but unfortunately not controllable. With a photo studio, you control the lighting yourself. - Practical space
Create a background and floor that are practical within the “dirty environment” of a car dealership.
Setting up your photo studio for automotive photography
The better the photo space, the better the car photos. For car dealers, the immediate space around the car is especially important. The lighting and photo background should be calm and unambiguous. In addition, for large car dealerships, routing, speed and automatic photographing and uploading of the photo series are very important.
A good photo location is in a practical location within your company; it should not interfere with your daily work. In addition, the photo space should not be able to “pollute” when you do not use it for a day. A suitable photo space contains at least the following 4 things:
✓ Good photo equipment in the right positions.
✓ A quiet background or backdrop.
✓ Good lighting (and keep out distracting light from outside).
✓ A stable and sturdy car turntable.
Car photography with a car turntable
Be prepared for developments in automotive photography
For both large and smaller car dealerships, it is important to create a photo location that can grow with the business in the future. A stable and strong turntable is the foundation for any photo space. For creating fast photo series, a turntable must be able to position exactly. In addition, the turntable platform must be able to grow with software developments in the future.
The importance of a solid car turntable
Too often a turntable is still seen as an afterthought. People underestimate how much power it takes to frequently stop and start a heavy product such as a car on a daily basis. This requires a durable and virtually maintenance-free turntable.
A turntable for your cars must be operationally reliable, strong and future-proof. The differences in car turntable offerings and their controls, are enormous. Therefore, delve carefully into the various turntable providers in the automotive industry.
Tip 1: Create a quiet back wall
The photo background should not draw attention away from your car. Therefore, many car companies choose a white background. You can create an industrial or sporty look instead, for example. However, it is then important that the background looks calm and does not distract attention from your cars. To increase the recognizability of your car photos, you can possibly display your company logo on the back wall.
Tip 2: Make sure you have good lighting equipment
Natural light can be beautiful in photographs but unfortunately cannot be controlled. A photo studio offers the advantage that you can take beautiful pictures at any time with good lighting. The basis consists of good studio lamps and flash units that provide sufficient light. When choosing a photo location, try to avoid incident light from outside through a window or skylight as much as possible. A diffused cloth or curtain can help. By choosing an enclosed space, you avoid unwanted reflections and shadows.
Tip 3: Be unique and take recognizable car photos
When your car photos also end up on websites such as Marktplaats.nl and Autoscout24.nl, it is important to make your cars stand out. Be creative and stand out from the crowd. Adding something unique to your car photos will make a statement. Be creative! Photograph your car stock against a special back wall, or rotate the front wheels so they are clearly visible, for example.
Tip 4: Photograph only clean cars
Even if the car appears clean at first, the cars in the photos may look much less clean due to lighting and reflections. So polish each car well before you drive it into the photo room. This will save you a lot of time during any post-processing of photos.
Tip 5: Let website visitors zoom in on a car
Many cars have beautiful lines that are only really visible when you are close to them. To show your website visitors those details, the photos must be of high quality – even when they zoom in. This is especially important with enthusiast cars.
Tip 6: Create online car experience with 360º photos and videos
Interactive 360 degree car photos and car videos are gaining popularity! A 360-degree photo or video allows potential customers to view your cars all around. You thereby create more car experience for your website visitors.
Get advice from turntable manufacturer Pre-Motion
From our role as a manufacturer of turntables, we have also been closely involved in car photography since 2009. We see an ever-increasing need for professional photo series of cars in the automotive industry. Meanwhile, we have worked with all kinds of automotive parties. We have set up a variety of photo locations and can advise you well on the possibilities for a photo studio with car turntable in your business premises.
Read more about car turntables for car photography from Pre-Motion.
Conclusion
As a car dealership, it is essential to have efficient and consistent photos of your cars. A photo studio from Pre-Motion offers the perfect solution to speed up and simplify this process. With a turntable, a user-friendly control system and the ability to work independently of the weather, you not only save time, but also improve the quality of your photos.
Want to know more about the possibilities?
At Pre-Motion we are always willing to think along with you and look for the right solution to your problem. Our experts will listen to your wishes and give you appropriate advice, without obligation. Together we will look for the ideal solution for you! Curious about what we can do for you? Feel free to contact us at +31 318 505 751 or send an e-mail to info@pre-motion360.com.
