10 photo tips to help sell you car
Having gone through the whole buying and selling process many times, I know what I look for when purchasing something, but also try to provide that same courtesy to others who might want to buy a car from me. As my mother said, honesty's the best policy.
Now bear in mind I am not a car salesman, and don't flip cars, but sometimes we just want something new and need to make room so we need to sell something else.
Buying anything online presents it's challenges, so to save time for me and the potential purchaser, I take as many photos as I can of everywhere, of what I see both good and bad.
1. Clean car off as much as weather will allow you to. If its a good time of year, also spend some time detailing the car if you can.
2. Clean out car as much as you can to really give a visual cue as to what the condition is really like. Remove loose parts, debris, soda cans and the burger king wrappers. If you have loose parts organize them on the driveway and prepare them to photograph separately.
3. Get your car into an area where you can take photos unobstructed by other objects or elements that may detract from your car. Dumpsters, damaged cars and other "negative" elements may detract from the positive image you can convey of your car.
4. When taking photos, take as many as your memory card will allow. As we photographers say "hey, it's digital, who cares how many we take".
5. Start by taking some general overview images of the car. Try to take all angles and try to take them at a height equal to or about a foot or two above the height of the car. Also take some general interior photos.
6. It's in the details - Show the details of the car. Show the little worn spots on the seat bolsters or show the bottom edges of the doors, or the little spots of peeling paint.
7. Don't use a bulky camera - Although I do photography professionally, I almost never use my professional gear when photographing a car I am selling. My simple G7 point and shoot camera, with built in flash allows me to shoot in tight spots that will also use the onboard flash and add light where I need it.
8. Take your photos early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The sun is at it's lowest point in the sky, and give you the best supply of light. There will be no haze from the atmosphere to worry about it, and you're light won't be as harsh. Keep the sun at your back when photographing, even if you need to move the car, you'll get better results. Also don't be afraid to take photos on a cloudy day. Cloudy days give you even lighting.
9. Resize your photos accordingly. If you plan on embedding large images into a page using the [ IMG ] tag, try to keep the size at either 800px or 1024px on the long side of the photo. However, if you plan on embedding the thumbnails and linking to the large image, by all means size to 1024 or even maybe 1200 px. Also save your master large files so you can supply the whole folder to interested parties.
10. Post using a sharing site like Photobucket. See Capriman86's Photobucket Tutorial here: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthread.php?t=72875
I recently sold my 88 GT convertible, and while it did take a while to sell (due mainly to it being winter), the first person that PHYSICALLY came and looked at it, purchased it, and also didn't haggle a lot with my price. The photos and documentation with the car supported my description of the car and there were no skeletons in the car's closet.
Here is the gallery of images I took for that car:
http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f336/eeprete/blue-88/
I had a similar experience when I sold my 90 LX as well. Took a lot of photos and the first guy to come physically to look, wound up buying it.
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Originally Posted by LxFiveO
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