Have you been trying to photograph your vehicles but can’t seem to get them quite right? Well, not everyone is gifted with immaculate photography skills. Regardless, you can still get polished pictures to elevate your sales. All you need to do is just avoid making some mistakes here and there.
So, here are the 10 photo mistakes that kill your car sales.
The mistakes start even before the first click, when you don’t prepare well enough for the photos. Other mistakes include poor lighting, bad angles, untidy backgrounds, skipping important features, and more. These make even a well-maintained car look unappealing, thus decreasing your sales.
Stay tuned as we reveal all ten mistakes you’re likely to make when taking car photos. Additionally, we will tell you how to prevent such mistakes. We will also share the perfect tool to get the right pictures for your dealership. So, let’s get started!
How Your Car Photos Influence Sales
Before we get into the 10 photo mistakes that kill your car sales, let’s first understand how car photos can affect your sales.
These photos will reflect your branding, they tell prospective buyers about what you can offer. Clients now prefer doing online research before visiting showrooms. Without the right visuals on your dealership website, your clients won’t give you a chance.
The photos decide the buyer’s first impression of your dealership. High-quality images showcasing the car’s true condition set a good impression. It reduces the customer’s hesitation and allows them to trust you. So, when buyers know they can trust you, the sales are guaranteed.
Additionally, well-composed photos allow you to justify the pricing of your product. Neatly presented cars will tell your clients that they’re worth the high investment.
This consequently drives more buyers towards your dealership. Not only will it increase your sales significantly, but you will also build trust within your community.
10 Photo Mistakes That Kill Your Car Sales And How To Fix Them
When photographing your vehicles, you don’t need impeccable skills. However, you need to be more careful about the mistakes you’re making. As they will either make the buyers trust you or push them away.
So, here are 10 photo mistakes that kill your car sales and how to fix them.
1. Inadequate Preparation
The first mistake is to start without any preparation beforehand. You can’t just start snapping up your vehicles without planning things ahead. This leads to more chaos and confusion, leaving you overwhelmed as you continue with large volumes of photos.
How To Prepare Adequately?
- Consider the number of cars you will photograph and take time out accordingly.
- Assess the right timing for it and don’t rush the process.
- Think about the details you have to include.
- If you’re working with used vehicles, evaluate whether the car is in the right state to be photographed.
2. Poor Lighting
Moving on to the next mistake, which is poor lighting. This is more common than we think. The lighting is a key factor when it comes to photography. The wrong lighting makes a car appear more muted or darker than it actually is. Moreover, it can even make them look dull.
What’s even more concerning is that improper lighting can ruin the details of the car. This diminishes their original design and pushes buyers away.
How To Fix Poor Lighting?
- Try to be experimental with the lighting. Depending on the color, some cars look better in natural daylight, whereas others look nicer indoors.
- Some cars look better when in the sun. However, don’t photograph your vehicles under the blazing sun. Select a time when the sun isn’t as harsh. If needed, use shade for more balanced visuals.
- If you’re doing an indoor shoot, go for soft studio lighting. Avoid very bright and harsh lights.
3. Blurry Or Out-Of Focus Images
Blurry or out-of-focus images will instantly drive your buyers away. Unfortunately, this error is very easy to make. People, especially those with shaky hands, can’t keep their phones or cameras steady. Thus, resulting in hazy images.
Moreover, rushing the process can result in blurry photos. You have to be patient. Another major reason behind this is a slow shutter speed. A slow shutter speed usually requires more exposure time.
How To Prevent Blurry Images?
- Make sure the car is in focus.
- Use a tripod for steadier images.
- Always check focus before moving to the next shot.
- Increase the shutter speed.
4. Bad Angles
You can’t manipulate a vehicle like you can with smaller products to get the right angles. This is why car photos often end up from the wrong perspectives. The problem arises when the proportion of your car feels off.
While buyers may not be able to pinpoint the exact wrong angle, they can sense the wrong alignment. Even people with little knowledge about vehicles will find it unpleasant.
How To Get The Right Angles Of Your Car?
- The most generic rule is to capture photos with the camera at the photographer’s eye level without tilting it too much.
- Avoid going very high or very low.
- Alternatively, if you’re confident, try proven car angles such as three-quarters view from the front and rear. This means the photos will be taken at 45-degree angle views of each corner.
- Don’t hesitate to try vertical shots. Make sure to keep the foreground clear when positioning the car.
5. Underprepared Or Dirty Background
When taking the photos, you have to think about more than just the car. Even if the car looks polished, a messy or dirty background will ruin the buyer’s impression. Buyers often associate a disordered background with low maintenance.
The location as well as its state is a big factor here. Sellers sometimes don’t pay attention to such details. However, a photo of the car with distractions in the background isn’t acceptable.
How To Prepare The Background?
- If you’re doing the shoot outdoors, select a clean and relatively empty space.
- For indoor spaces, ensure a clean setup with minimal details. Tidy up everything and adjust the lighting accordingly.
- In both locations, remove unnecessary items.
- To make the background blurry, set the shutter speed to lower values from about half a second to a second.
- To further make the background appealing, you can utilize AI-powered tools specifically for cars. For example, an app like C-AR will completely edit your location and convert it into a professional showroom setup.
6. Not Considering Photographic Composition
The composition of your picture matters a lot. It basically deals with the arrangement, balance, and framing of elements within a photo.
People often make a mistake with the composition by rushing the process. They don’t account for the crucial factors that frame the subject of the image.
How To Maintain The Composition Of Your Photo
- Follow the rule of thirds. Imagine the frame in nine sections and place the elements, such as the car and its background pieces, into the intersection.
- Leave a balanced background space to create focus on the car.
- Don’t shoot too close to the car.
7. Skipping Important Features
The next mistake we often see is skipping important details of the car. You need to be thorough with what you’re photographing. Some sellers forget to take the car photos from different viewpoints, leaving the buyers second-guessing.
Moreover, they repeat the mistake by only sharing exterior photos. They don’t consider that the buyers will want the whole package, which includes the interior of the car as well.
How To Avoid Missing Important Features?
- Start by making a list of all the features you need to show.
- Pay extra attention to any new upgrades or selling points of the car. This catches the buyer’s attention very easily.
- Double-check once you’re done.
8. Over-Editing Or Excess Use Of Filters
You don’t want to push away your prospective buyers with overly saturated images. This is another mistake that kills car sales instantly.
While we understand it must be tempting to increase the brightness or maybe even slap on a filter, but doing so can raise suspicion among buyers. Overly edited images often appear deceptive. It makes the buyer wonder if you’re overcompensating or trying to hide anything.
How To Properly Edit Car Photos?
- Keep the photos as natural as possible.
- Avoid heavy color enhancements.
- Adjust the lighting properly to avoid over-exposure or under-exposure.
- Make minimal edits just to match the photos to what you see in reality.
9. Inconsistency With The Photo Quality
You need to be increasingly mindful with every picture you click. Uploading a disorganized mix of high and low-quality photos is very unappealing. This won’t get you a positive response from buyers.
Consistency feels more professional. Otherwise, it seems like you didn’t put enough effort into the photos. Or worse, it reflects negatively on the cars’ upkeep.
How To Maintain Consistency When Taking The Photos?
- Stick to a single device.
- Maintain the lighting and editing for all photos.
- Try to conclude the shoot in a specific period of the day. You don’t want half the pictures in daylight and the other half during the night or indoors.
- When listing the photos for your dealership, maintain uniformity. For example, assemble the photos with the same angle in a sequence. Don’t go jumping from one angle to the other.
10. Taking Too Few Car Photos
Lastly, some sellers take very few photos. This is a terrible blunder, one that will only add to your worries. Most photos don’t come out perfect the first time. The shot might look hazy or appear to be at the wrong angle or with the wrong lighting.
Moreover, from a buyer’s perspective, you won’t have a competitive advantage. Listing too few photos raises questions in the buyer’s mind. Don’t let them think you’re hiding something.
How To Avoid Taking Too Few Photos?
- Always try to aim for a higher quantity of photos than you actually need. You can filter out the bad ones later.
- Think of your listing as a virtual tour for buyers.
- Be experimental and work your way through multiple shots.
- Be as thorough as possible. Cover different features and try out different angles.
Harness The Power Of C-AR For Your Car Photos
That sums up the 10 photo mistakes that kill your car sales. Now, what if we gave you an easier, more efficient way to get the perfect car photos?
Let us introduce you to C-AR, an AI-driven mobile app that simplifies the process of capturing and editing car photos.
C-AR primarily caters to car dealerships, manufacturers, and wholesalers. Hence, it works to boost engagement and consequently sales. What makes it even better is that you won’t require any photography skills to use the app.
Take a look at what C-AR can do for you.
- Offers visual alignment and positioning guidelines to help you capture the right photo.
- Smart framing options for interior shots.
- Polishes and adds shine to dirty wheels.
- Creates realistic reflection, adding depth to the images.
- Offers blurring features to ensure privacy.
- Offers various background swap options for a more professional look.
- Adds showroom-style reflective floors.
- Implements personalized logos for better branding.
- Offers a car polishing feature for a neat finish.
At C-AR, the main priority is client satisfaction. Their customer service is exceptional, aiming to meet your listing photo needs all at once. To further work on client satisfaction, C-AR remains privacy-compliant without compromising your visual needs.
You can use the app from the convenience of your phone, on both Apple and Android devices. Moreover, once you’re done, you can access C-AR’s easy sharing options to instantly get the images on other platforms.
So, what are you waiting for? Get C-AR today to avail the showroom-style images and increase your car sales.
FAQ
Q. What is the golden hour for car photos?
Typically, the golden hour for car photography is considered to be an hour after sunrise or an hour before sunset.
Q. What are the best settings for car pictures?
Go for higher shutter speeds with a small aperture of around f/11. Also, use a lower ISO.
Q. How do I professionally edit car photos for online sales?
Many recommend using a photo editor like Adobe Lightroom. However, for faster and more efficient results, we recommend using car photography apps like C-AR that also reduces the need for further editing.
Conclusion
The automotive industry is more competitive than ever. Now, with buyers searching for dealerships online, you need to be extra careful about what you’re presenting on your website. This applies to your car photos as well. After all, the photos you’re uploading are paramount for your sales.
Thus, you must avoid the 10 photo mistakes that kill your car sales. Whether it is poor lighting or a bad angle, such mistakes will direct your prospective buyers to your competitors. Your dealership will thrive on clear, professional style photos, making your listing stand out!