Most car photography advice is about making a single photo look good. Angles, golden hour, get low, clean the wheels. All of it sound, and we have a guide of our own along those lines.
This post is about something narrower and, if you edit your photos, more useful: how to take a forecourt photo that will come out clean once the background is replaced.
The two are not the same job. A photo can be beautifully composed and still be a nightmare to cut out. And a fairly ordinary photo, taken with a few simple habits, can come out immaculate. Once you know which habits those are, they cost you nothing. You are taking the photo anyway.
The one thing that decides everything
Every background tool has to answer the same question: where does the vehicle end and the world begin?
Most of the time that is straightforward. Bodywork against tarmac, clear edges, done. Where it gets difficult is anywhere the answer is genuinely ambiguous, and that is where poor results come from.
Ambiguity looks like this:
- Another car parked so close that its wing touches your car’s wing in frame
- A fence, bollard or trolley bay passing behind the vehicle at bumper height
- Strong sun creating a shadow that merges the car into the ground with no visible edge
- Glass you can see straight through to a busy background
- A dark car against a dark wall, or a white car against a white sky
None of those are your fault. They are just what a working forecourt looks like. But if you know they are the hard cases, you can avoid most of them by moving the car six feet.
Seven habits that make photos edit well
1. Leave air around the vehicle. Frame so there is clear space on all four sides, especially at the bottom. When a wheel is cropped by the edge of the frame, the tool has no edge to find. Step back a pace further than feels natural.
2. Get the whole vehicle in. No cropped noses, no chopped roofs, no artistic close-ups of a badge as the main shot. Detail shots are fine as extra images, but the shots you want restyled should show the complete vehicle.
3. Keep the surroundings off the car. This is the big one. Before you press the shutter, look at where the vehicle overlaps other objects. A car parked alongside, a wheelie bin behind the rear quarter, a trolley in front of the sill. Move the car, or move yourself two steps left, so nothing touches it.
4. Photograph in flat light where you can. Overcast is the trade’s friend. Even, soft light gives clean edges and honest paint colour. Hard direct sun creates deep shadows on one side of the car and blown highlights on the other, and it welds the shadow to the tyres so the ground line disappears.
5. Never shoot into the sun. Backlighting silhouettes the vehicle, flattens the edges into darkness, and throws flare across the shot. Keep the sun behind or to the side of you.
6. Shoot from a consistent distance and height. Roughly chest height, roughly the same number of paces back, every time. This matters more than any individual angle, because it means your finished photos will sit at the same scale as each other on the stock page. Inconsistent scale is the thing that makes a grid of listings look untidy even after everything else has been tidied.
7. Turn the front wheels away from you. An old trade habit, and it still works. It shows the face of the alloy rather than its edge, and it gives the front of the car more shape.
The angles worth standardising
Pick a set and use it on every vehicle. Repeatability is worth more than variety here.
A reasonable standard set for the exterior shots you plan to restyle:
- Front three-quarter, driver’s side. Your lead image, in almost every case.
- Rear three-quarter, passenger side.
- Straight side profile.
- Straight front.
- Straight rear.
Five shots, same five every time, same distance and height. It takes about ninety seconds once it is a habit, and your stock page will look like it was shot in one session even when it was shot across three months.
What to shoot but not restyle
Not every photo wants a new background, and pushing everything through editing is a waste of your allowance.
Interiors. There is no background to replace. Shoot them honestly, front seats and rear seats, dashboard with the ignition on so the screen is lit, and the boot.
Engine bay. Same reasoning.
Damage, wear and service history. These should be plain, unedited and unflattering. A scuffed alloy photographed straight is a buyer who arrives already knowing about it. A scuffed alloy hidden is an argument on the forecourt and a wasted afternoon for both of you.
Anything with a person in it. Move them out of shot before you take the photo.
The images worth restyling are the exterior set, because those are what a buyer scans in a grid of thumbnails. Get those matching and the rest of the listing gets a fair hearing.
Give yourself a shooting spot
The cheapest improvement available to any dealer is a chosen spot on the yard.
Find the place with the most space around it, the least clutter behind it, and a plain surface underfoot. Mark it if you need to. Then photograph every car there, from the same distance, in the same order of angles.
It costs nothing, it takes no extra time once it is a routine, and it removes most of the hard cases described above before they happen. It also means anyone can take the photos, not just the person with the eye for it, which matters when you are out and someone else has to list a car.
Use the flagged results as feedback
If you use Photo Studio, results that have come out doubtful are flagged so you can look at those specifically rather than checking all fifty by eye.
Treat that flag as information about your shooting, not just about that photo. If the same kind of image keeps getting flagged, there is a pattern behind it. Cars photographed too close. A particular corner of the yard with railings at bumper height. Afternoon shots into low sun.
Fix the pattern and the flags mostly stop. That is a better use of the feature than simply re-editing the awkward ones.
A quick pre-shot checklist
Stick it on the wall by the valeting bay if it helps.
- Is the car clean and dry, plates on, boot and doors shut?
- Is anything touching or overlapping the car in frame?
- Is the whole vehicle in the frame with space around it?
- Is the sun behind me rather than in front?
- Am I at the same distance and height as usual?
- Are the front wheels turned away from me?
Six questions, about five seconds. It is the difference between photos that edit cleanly and photos that need a second pass.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a proper camera?
No. A recent phone is more than good enough for stock photography. Clean the lens, hold it steady, and get the framing right. The framing matters far more than the sensor.
Does the photo need a plain background if it is going to be replaced anyway?
It does not need to be plain, but it helps if nothing overlaps the vehicle. A busy background well behind the car is fine. A bollard passing through the rear door is not.
Will editing fix a badly framed photo?
No. If the vehicle is cropped, out of focus, or shot so close that you cannot see all of it, no amount of editing recovers it. Reshoot it. It takes ninety seconds.
What about vans and pickups?
Same rules, and they need more space around them than a hatchback because they are longer and taller. Step back further. Vans, pickups and estates are recognised and sized correctly in Photo Studio, but you still need the whole vehicle in frame.
Should I edit interior photos too?
There is nothing to gain. Interiors have no background to replace. Spend your allowance on the exterior set that does the work in search results and stock grids.
More from the Vehiso blog
- How to take great photos of cars for your dealership listings
- Introducing Photo Studio: every vehicle on the same background, in one go
- Bulk car photo editing: how to restyle your whole forecourt at once
- How to set up a house style for your vehicle photos
- AI vehicle descriptions: how to write better car adverts in seconds
