How to Optimize Car Photos for Ads?

If you are looking to sell your car online, you need great pictures to find a great buyer. Photos act as a great marketing tool for your car. As the saying goes “The first impression is the last impression”.

Photos taken carefully can create a stunning impression of your car. You can hook your audience to check out the car you’re selling and find a buyer who is willing to pay a higher price. Below are the essential steps you must follow to take stunning and engaging photos of your car.

Get your car ready.

Treat your car like a fashion model on the day of the photoshoot. The first thing you need to do is to wash your car. You should clean both the interior and exterior of your car in extreme detail. You can also polish your car, especially the alloys to add a bit of shine.

From headlights to backlights, make sure you don’t miss anything. You should also clean your car engine as well. You have to make it more presentable as you’ll need to show it to your potential buyers.

As you’ll be taking photos of the interior as well make sure the interior feels.

  • Remove the dust from the dashboard and brush the car seats.
  • Remove irrelevant things from your car such as shopping bags etc.
  • Use a small vacuum cleaner to remove dust from compact spaces.

All in all, your car must look fresh! Make sure your car looks engaging to yourself before presenting it in an online showroom.

Use a great camera.

Pictures are like messages that are loud and clear. All of your photos must be high resolution as buyers like to take note of the details. Using a high-definition camera is the key to take stunning pictures. Avoid using filter lens as they can distort the true colors of your car. Photos taken from a high-resolution camera don’t need edits afterward. You can post them in their original form.

Smartphone cameras can be used but these are not as good as professional SLRs. If you don’t have a professional camera, you can borrow from someone. You must be familiar with the technical aspects of your camera so that you can optimize its salient features.

You can use a tripod if you are taking still pictures. If you are taking motion pictures, you can use a gimbal that will help you in image stabilization. In most cameras, burst shot is the most commonly used mode to capture several pictures with a single long click. It can help in giving your car a sporty look.

Choose a relevant location.


The location and the background of your car must enhance the appearance of your car. You should use a wide and clean road as your location rather than your own garage.

Make sure the environment also resonates with your car. Don’t take your sedan’s pictures at a truck dealership or a fish market.

Heres’s a pro tip: You can simply remove the background from your car picture if it doesn’t suit your car. You don’t have to look for a suitable location if you edit your pictures manually.

You can use Cut.pro which is an effective “simple to use” online tool to remove unwanted backgrounds from your pictures. All you have to is upload your car photo. It will automatically remove the background with just a click! You can also edit your car pictures even further by adding suitable backgrounds to your pictures.

Balanced light exposure.

Taking high-resolution photos indoors and after sunset is never a good idea. Light adds details to the pictures. If you take your pictures indoors, you have to use high-exposure artificial lights. It is more sensible to take your car out in the sun as it provides optimal light. 

Avoid taking pictures in extreme light as it can add unnecessary shine to your car and make it difficult to capture the detail. If you are using sunlight to light up your car, take photos in the early morning or afternoon. Thus you can have the right amount of light exposure to take pictures. Also, take a few pictures in the dark as well after turning on the headlights or the backlights. This will add a sporty look to your car by a margin!

Capture various angles.

Think like a buyer when you take pictures of your car. Take pictures of the most important elements of your car as buyers pay high attention to these elements. From near to far and low to high, try all angles. Take pictures of all parts from multiple angles and choose the most catchy ones to post online.

Add the details.

When it comes to the interior of the car, there are several small details you need to capture. Make sure your focus is on-point! Include all relevant elements so that buyer doesn’t have to ask you for more pictures. You’ll also have to take special care of the light inside the car. Make sure enough light exposure is present inside the car to produce high-definition photos.

Avoid misleading buyers.

There are a lot of scammers on the internet. Make sure you are not one of them. Misleading customers is not only illegal in most areas but also unethical as well. If your car has one or more damaged parts, make sure you take pictures of those as well. Editing original pictures and removing defects can cause damage to your customer as well as your own goodwill.

Final thoughts.

Pictures alone cannot deliver entire information about your car therefore it is necessary to add descriptions to the car pictures. You can add individual descriptions for individual parts in each picture.

You can also add a comprehensive description that explains all pros that come along with your car. Once you perform all the necessary steps, you’ll optimize your car photos as well as your marketing strategy. 

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