What is the best looking setup/stage (floor, backdrop, lights) for taking pictures of vehicles in yo

[Bill Simmons]

I found this website over the weekend and wanted to share it here. I searched for the right thread to post it in and this was the closest. There is a classic car dealership in Charlotte NC called RK Motors that does a great job with photos, videos and descriptions. They use a turntable setup for taking the pictures of the car. You have the option of opening each pic in a separate window to see a hi-res version. Its pretty slick! Also take a look at the descriptions of the cars. They write 4 to 5 paragraphs on each vehicle. The videos are pretty good also detailing the restoration history of the cars. I know this is a completely different biz model than ours, but we run used car departments also. Maybe we could learn a bit from looking at how the do it. Its pretty impressive to me.

Here is the link to the homepage: RK Motors Charlotte | Classic and Collector Cars for Sale

Here is a link to one of their VDP's: Active Inventory | RK Motors Charlotte | Collector and Classic Cars

 

[Eley Duke]

Bill, I see why you were at that site, lot of temptation!

 

[craigh]

Ahh yes Bill,

I posted that site in one of the "Which Dealer Sites are Best?" forums.
It's the best site I have seen, but it's not just the photos.

They also have some amazing features that work for their market:

a) What vehicles have sold and what price they sold at (comparable related sales when looking at available inventory)
b) Amazing information that engages you and keeps you on the site (insurance, transportation - everything you need)
c) RK Seal of Approval
d) Evaluate - Similar to "MyCar" from Dealer.com, it's a garage of vehicles you are considering / want to compare

Not to mention currency conversion, the enthusiasm, auctions, a full article write up on the vehicle description (great idea), etc

Did I mention I love their site?

 

[VVAuto1]

Sean how much should I budget to spend in something like? I love your work.... Also who do you use for descriptions, in house... Max Ads?

 

[phillyman005]

Richmond Toyota in Richmond, Indiana. We just set up a photo booth that's been a work-in progress for the last couple of months. Still working on partitioning off the entire section of an empty building out back. Currently using halogen overhead lights, 2 soft boxes and boom light for interior pictures. Enclosed 7k square ft building with garage door opener. Open to suggestions, comments or criticism on pictures. Thanks in advance!

Wade Stinson
Richmond Toyota

 

[SeanWoodruff]

Sean how much should I budget to spend in something like? I love your work.... Also who do you use for descriptions, in house... Max Ads?

Hey guys, this is Sean, the person who created this thread. I had to start a new account because I was promoted to BDC Manager of our Ford store a couple years ago and had to leave that Honda account with Autofair Honda. I'm trying to remember how much we spent.... let me get back to you on that. And yes we use Max Ads for our custom comments.

It's nice to see this thread back at the top!

 

[flosho]

Nothing beats overcast lighting:

We are upgrading our photo area this winter. We have a smaller dedicated space. Thinking about creating something more dynamic: industrial/commercial design that sets our photos apart but isn't too distracting or taking away focus from the cars themselves.

 

[joe.pistell]

We are upgrading our photo area this winter. We have a smaller dedicated space. Thinking about creating something more dynamic: industrial/commercial design that sets our photos apart but isn't too distracting or taking away focus from the cars themselves.

Like your goals Jason. If it's your 1st booth, be prepared for a long and hard road ahead (did I mention expensive too? At UsedCarKing.com, over 5 years, I went thru 3 photobooth makeovers before we got "best of class".


My Thoughts:

1. No amount of money can make a tiny photo booth look great.
2. Search DR forums for other dealers that have been down this road, reach out to them, profit from their mistakes.
3. I highly recommend a photo booth consultant

HTH
Joe

 

[Photoscopes]

All of that time and energy for some great photos, yet no dealer license plates?

Spot on, no dealer plates, frames, cars shot all wet, crooked, dark interior pictures

 

[mike kearney]

We are currently upgrading our used car photo area. Our current setup looks like this:

Used 2006 Honda Accord 2.4 For Sale | Manchester NH

We just put in that gray floor (you'll see some of our other cars on our site have an old black and white checkered floor), and now plan to upgrade our lighting system and our backdrop.

The main issues with the lighting is that we need to make sure we have enough light, which we currently don't have. Plus we need something to diffuse the light (and we want day-light balanced bulbs). We don't want lights reflecting on the car's surface like they do right now (those flourescent lights reflection look horrible in my opinion). So essentially we're trying to come up with the cheapest solution. Softboxes are not cheap, and using a slightly see-through sheet is cheaper but not as effective. Plus we'd have to hang it over the floor above the car and not sure how this would work. Anybody have any good ideas for this?

Next is the backdrop. What I want to do is put up a nice black curtain (kind of like movie theater style). I've simulated this effect in photoshop in this picture:


I think that looks VERY classy. Black might not be the best for black cars, so we were thinking maybe a dark gray color, but we actually have more dark gray and silver cars than anything else. Plus with the proper lighting I think we'd be fine with a black background. Any comments on this?

Anybody have any great ideas? Or examples of dealers who do a really good job with their cars? Let me know. We currently use Dealer Specialties to take our pictures and they use a decent Nikon D3000 (its a DSLR). So we have to have a setup that our DS rep can easily work with and is pretty painless. Don't want to have to constantly move lights around, etc.

I'm sure plenty of people here have experience with this at their dealership/previous dealership. What would you do if you were in charge of this? I'm looking for any and all ideas!!!

These are the studios we have built in the past. We have moved out of the studio building business because there is a ton of up keep to make sure they look good at all times and the dealerships typically don't have the space needed for a great studio . We now have equipment that can go any where in the dealership and we put a back drop on the photos to cut out any clutter or traffic in the back of the photos.