Just imagine – an online buyer clicks on your website amidst millions of online car sellers jostling for their fair share on the internet. Unless you can convince them to buy from you, all your efforts are for naught. Visuals are the best way to do that, which is why you need professional images shot in a car photography studio.
When people browse through your VDPs, they immediately switch over to your competitor if they come across blurry car pictures that don’t give them a good look at the vehicles. You’ll end up losing a sale! You can avoid this situation by using high-impact images shot by a professional in a car dealership photo studio (or perhaps other means – keep reading to know more about that). Research says high-quality visuals can boost sales by 65% more than any textual or verbal info on the page.
You are shooting car visuals with different angles, backgrounds, effects, rotating views, etc. Now, what is next? It’s the post-production phase – editing. Unfortunately, this is car showroom photography’s most tedious and tricky part. You either need professional editors who can process them manually, or you need to install Photoshop or other image editing software to do it yourself.
Either way, it’s a time-consuming, expensive, laborious, and non-skippable part of virtual showroom photography. You need to ensure that these image carousels, videos, and other visual formats comply with the marketplace requirements and are not too heavy to load.
How to Shoot Cars in a Studio?
When it comes to shooting cars in a studio, it involves careful planning and a long tedious process. Here is a list of these steps:
- Car studio setup
Begin by selecting a studio space that provides adequate room, clean surroundings, and controlled lighting. Ensure backdrops and props align with your car's aesthetics. - Hiring Photographer
Choose an experienced automotive photographer skilled in studio photography. Collaborate to articulate your vision and objectives for the shoot. - Photoshoot
Place the car meticulously within the studio, ensuring it's spotlessly clean and well-lit. Experiment with various angles and compositions. Pay close attention to lighting to minimize reflections and shadows. - Post Production
After the shoot, transfer photos to a computer for editing. And manually adjust exposure, and colors, and eliminate imperfections, aiming for vibrant and flawless images. - Final Output
Lastly, preview the final output of your photography shots and download the final result once you are satisfied with the output.
By thoughtfully following each phase, from the studio setup and photographer selection to the final output, you'll be able to shoot cars in an indoor car photo studio or traditional studio.
Traditional Photography Studio Vs AI-Powered Car Photography Studio:
Traditional Photography Studio
- There are location restrictions on studios. If your studio is far from your lot, then driving cars to and fro between the two would be an additional task
- Images shot in car studios undergo manual editing, which can be slow and tedious
- Traditional photo studios exhaust a lot of costs as you need to hire staff to take care of all your photography and editing needs.
- It is time-consuming, You need to spend hours on manual editing.
AI-Powered Car Photography Studio
- The most obvious one is that AI photography is quicker and more affordable
- This AI tool can detect distinct features of a vehicle – like dents, scratches, stains, etc. This will allow the customers to see every detail of your car and help you establish a trusted bond with them
- You can create 360 car pictures in a matter of minutes without going through the rigorous editing process. The system automatically compiles the images taken from different angles to create a perfect spin-car visual
- With the help of this tool, your photos will be more striking in terms of quality
Top Tips for Shooting the Best Car Dealership Photos
If you are new to virtual car showroom photography, these Car Photography Tips will be a blueprint to kick-start your car photography journey. Good car photography calls for techniques and understanding the coordination between lighting, lens, and background. Acing the timing of these components lets you win half the game to get the best car pictures. Here are a few pro tips:
- Get Long Lenses
Always check for car photography settings and consider using long lenses like 70-200 mm f/2.8L IS to get full-frame shots. - Macro photography for car interior
For a vehicle’s interior, you’ll need to zoom in on notable design details to highlight them. - The circular polarizing effect
Polarizing filters attached to your lenses are one of the most powerful tools to capture the right car images. - Make smart use of the space
Placing cars in the right place in an image makes a huge impact. - Identify the golden hours of shooting
Golden Hours is a vital factor for good Car Photography. - Shoot in raw format
Give yourself more flexibility when editing your photos. - Use reflections
Add interest and depth to your photos and take lots of photos.
Photographing Interior and Exterior Shots in Car Studios
Interior photography tricks for virtual car showrooms
Try matching the color of the car interiors with the background since you want to cover the scenery from the windows and windscreen of the vehicle. The surroundings and interiors should complement each other. For this, set the aperture at f/4 to blur the background through the windows.
Make sure there’s no wear and tear inside the car. If the edge of your leather seats is ripping apart or the leather covering of the gear is showing sponges, make sure to mend them all before you shoot. You won’t want to show a car that’s an absolute mess from the inside.
Don’t forget to light the car interiors. If you are shooting in daylight, the sun can create high-contrast areas, causing unnecessary dark spots in the image. Using a scrim and light bar, you can diffuse the natural light to some extent and create soft spots.
Focus on every little feature. Do you have a cassette player in that old vintage Mustang? Or a headrest on the passenger seat? It can create micro-moments for buyers, leading to an ultimate sale.
If you are shooting at night, ensure that dashboards are well lit up. Try with timed exposure, focusing on a spinning tachometer. If you sell a modern car with LED accent lights, keep them on and try to capture different exposures.
Exterior photography tips for virtual car showrooms
If there are unnecessary elements in the surroundings, try to go for the bokeh effect. Widen the aperture lower than f/4 and concentrate only on the vehicle.
Use a pair of wide-angle lenses to increase the captured area in the image. They have a smaller focal length, allowing you to insert more background portions.
Play with the shutter speed and ISO to get an accurate exposure. If the light is sufficient, go for a lower ISO and faster shutter speed. If it’s dim, keep the ISO higher, but not so much to include noises and grains.
Deciding on image composition before shooting can help create high-impact visuals while saving time. Bracketing or taking the same scene with different exposure settings works if you want to monitor and manage composition based on exposure. You could combine several photographs into one to make a composite image.
AI-Led (Automated) Virtual Car Photography Studio
Automated car photography studio uses AI-powered software to help you click images of your vehicles. Usually, such car showroom apps offer plenty of different photography solutions – guided static photoshoots, automatic image editing (like car background removal and replacement), 360-degree guided photo/video shoot, etc.
Auto dealerships are always looking for ways to save time and money, and AI-led vehicle photo studios are one of the most cost-effective options. With this tool, dealerships can eliminate the need for manual photo processing and retouching. This means less time spent on photo taking and more time selling cars. Additionally, AI applications can capture high-quality images that are perfect for online listings, online advertising campaigns, and even in dealership showrooms.
AI-Powered Photo Studio: Your Ultimate Solution
Looking to sell your cars online but don’t have a professional auto photo studio? Well, guess what? You can make this phase a breeze and chaos-free with our AI-led Virtual Car Photography Studio. AI image editing solutions like this tool offer the best car photography studio and numerous features to shoot and edit car images in the most hassle-free way.
With the help of AI, It creates a realistic studio environment through background editing, shadow generation, and its 360 spin view offerings. Spyne aims to create the best automotive photography system. To achieve show-stopping inventory images, all you have to do is:
- Download the Spyne app or search in your browser and open the app camera
- Follow the on-screen guide and ensure that the car fits the overlay sketch. It will help maintain accurate angles
- Choose backgrounds from 100+ marketplace-ready templates and apply the relevant ones. You can also upload a custom background to match your automotive photo studio photography ideas
- Shoot 360 spin car videos to your VDPs to increase the visual appeal and showcase your cars in an even better manner
- Once done, click on upload and publish images on your virtual car dealerships
Spyne also offers virtual car photo studio API and SDK solutions that seamlessly integrate with your existing system. This means that Spyne’s solutions can be customized to fit your dealership needs. Spyne enables you to enhance your car photos with subtle touches and create showroom-like quality images that will leave a lasting impression. By leveraging the power of artificial intelligence, Spyne automatically applies necessary adjustments to your uploaded car photos.
Conclusion
Car studios are crucial for your car digital retailing business, as you need great images to strengthen your online presence. However, the traditional means are expensive and quite slow. In comparison, AI-powered photography and editing are much quicker as well as affordable. This powerful tool can be customized to match your car photo studio ideas. You can capture as many as 1000 images in one go with minimal retakes and errors and process them seamlessly. The cherry on top: by making images marketplace-ready, you start cracking deals in no time!