So you’ve just started a new business. After years of hard work, you’ve finally ventured into the business of selling brand new and used cars. You have an impressive list of vehicles and you’re offering them at competitive prices. But something isn’t going right.
If you’ve developed a website for your new business, it’s easy to get stuck between keeping things simple or showing off the incredible vehicles you're selling. But if you don’t want your competitors to gain speed ahead of you and race you first to the top, you better act fast.
The act of uploading photos of your products to make them available for online purchase, is a usual practice among car sellers and automotive dealers. Of course, if you want potential customers to see value in your cars, you want to present high-quality images of the vehicle on your website. Other than that, you also need to highlight the key features of the car and specify the parts of its machine to attract more buyers.
Nowadays, taking a quick snapshot of the vehicle isn’t enough. Gone are the days of terribly-taken car photographs where the car’s profile gets washed against poor lighting. A new trend of auto photography is in, and it’s not as simple as it sounds.
Even with a significant background in photography, it’s still very challenging to snap incredible photos of cars. The challenge comes in due to different car colors, reflective strips, and also due to external, uncontrollable factors like the weather and sunlight.
If you have your own studio just for automotive photography then good for you! But if you don’t, then it's best to unleash your resourcefulness and creativity by making use of what you have.
Buckle up and start learning about techniques in car photography that will help you sell cars fast.
Follow the Light
The best source of light is the sun, but it won’t stay up there all there. It also doesn’t give off the same type of light throughout the day.
The best sunlight to chase for is the light at the golden hour. The golden hour is the time before the sun sets down. The light at this time of the day is dimmer and more tolerable than in the morning, and its hues are perfect enough to add warmth and emphasize the texture of the vehicle.
Image taken from Unsplash
To produce amazing car photography, you need to let natural light fall softly against the body of the car. This will highlight the built, edges, shape, form, and color.
Refrain from shooting reflections
One of the best car photography ideas is to shoot your car at a location that’s relatively empty. The reason why you’d want to avoid taking pictures where there are trees or unattractive sights in the space, is that you might risk catching their reflection on the car.
A new car is a shiny car, and depending on the way their paint is coated, the vehicle might have a reflective surface. Reflections of things or places in the car’s image will spoil its quality, and it wouldn’t look good when displayed on your website.
It’s also a good car photography technique to avoid capturing your own reflection on the car. It’s always a better choice to opt for using a tripod to shoot cars instead.
Take shots of the car’s interior
If you will be showcasing a particular product on your website, it’s best to upload multiple photos of the product taken at different angles. The same goes for cars.
An automotive photo gallery is not complete without a great photo of the interior. Car photography isn’t just about showing what’s outside, but also showing the beauty of the inside.
Climb inside the car and spot interesting patterns or textures. Make sure to capture these small details into the frame.
Car photography ideas should extend from the inside too. Just make sure to find a clear focal point to highlight a part of the car.
Take pictures at night
When uploading photos on your business website, you’ll want to offer a variety of images to your customers.
Night car photography is also a common practice in car photography. But there are a few things to remember when doing car photography at night, since some of your default camera settings may not be apt for nighttime.
Use slow shutter speed and a wide aperture. This can be helpful when making those majestic light trails that are produced when taking a picture of a moving car.
And since its nighttime, make sure to put up warning signs near your location. You don’t want to risk other vehicles on the road just to take nice photographs.
Don’t use obvious shots
One of the most effective automotive photography tips out there is to refrain from taking very obvious shots. Don’t let your viewers know you took that picture in a parking lot or at a narrow spot beside the road. Take advantage of depth and illusion to make it seem that your car’s image had been taken in a space much wider than it is.
It also wouldn’t be necessary to take a photo of the entire vehicle. Car photography is all about finding an angle and taking fascinating shots that would stun the viewers.
Knowing how to take pictures of cars is a great advantage when setting up your online store. You can even earn money from the images themselves by making them available as digital products. The choice is all up to you.
Now that you know how to photograph cars, it’s time to make use of the car photography techniques you’ve learned by choosing the right website builder for you.
A website builder like Strikingly, offers many features that you can use to highlight and showcase your cars. They also offer an amazing set of tools to tweak manipulate images to make them stand out more.
Let Strikingly do the magic on your online store for you so you can take car photography to the next level. Here’s how you can use Strikingly with your car photographs:
- Showcase stunning car photos on your homepage
Image take from Strikingly Product
Your homepage is the very first thing a customer sees. And it's true when they say that the first impression always lasts.
Make sure to pick a website template that is appropriate for the product you're selling online. If you're selling cars, you may want to choose more elegant and darker tones, but it still depends on the type of cars you're selling.
Show your customers that you have knowledge in car photography by using an incredible car image in your homepage.
To do this, click on Background in the upper right corner. Then, select Upload Image. From there, you can upload high-quality car images to Strikingly. Pick the best one for your homepage.
- Add products to your website
Image taken from Strikingly product
Once you're done with your homepage, you can begin adding your inventory to your website.
To add products, click on Store on the left-side menu. It will lead you to the window that you can see in the image above.
Then select product type. Afterwards, upload an image or images of the product to the site.
When picking an image, choose the one that best represents the value of the car. After adding the image, increase the chances of selling your products by adding relevant information.
Use the make, type, and model of the car as its product name. Also, remember to add if the car is 'brand new' or 'used'.
Describe and highlight the car's features and specs in the product description. Finally, add the product's price.
3. Upload car images onto your site
In connection with the previous steps, you need to upload great images of the car to make sure that a potential buyer will click on it.
After selecting Store then Products, click on Upload Product Image. Clicking that will prompt the window you see on the image above.
This will give you four different options to choose from. To import images, click on Import Images and it will lead you to your computer's files. Then, select the image you want.
If car photography isn't enough to attract customers, you can also add videos of the car.
Before uploading photos, make sure that the images have high resolution and are set in the right format. Tweak and edit your images if necessary. Strikingly also has tools that will enable you to make some changes to your images.
There are many car photography ideas to follow and a lot of them are often easy to follow for a beginner. If you're not very keen on car photography, you can hire an experienced photographer who knows how to take pictures of cars.
Make sure that you're always ahead of the competition by using car photography techniques and integrating your skills in your online store.
For a business person who knows how to create stunning websites and take car photographs, success is everything but a red light on the road. Use Strikingly to showcase your photography skills and race your way to the top of the competition.
