How to take pictures and video that sell my car

Taking a few good pictures and video of your vehicle is a piece of cake. First, you’ll need to have or borrow a moderately decent digital camera. Although newer ones always have bigger and better features, they’ve been doing great pictures and video for several years now. Next you’ll ideally want to wash the car and make it presentable. At the very least you’ll want to make sure the interior is picked up and tidy, no junk, no clutter.

Pictures are essential for your online ad

You should plan for about 10 pictures and 2-3 minutes of video. You’ll need an area where there is 20ft-25ft all around the car so you can move around and get the right angles of the whole car. While the best light is daylight, avoid times that are really sunny so you don’t get too much glare and colors that are too washed out. Setting your camera to a resolution of no more than 800×600 should be fine. Profile shots, 3/4 shots, front and rear should give you 6-7 shots. Next you’ll need 3-4 shots of the interior like the dashboard, steering wheel and gauges, front and rear seats.

 A video sells your car, showing it will be more effective and easier

Next up is the video. You have a few options to choose from before you start. First is whether or not you’ll be speaking during the walk-around. Its best if you do, ok if you dont. If you choose to, just pretend you’re speaking to the buyer. You basically just go through the ad text that you’ve already written, verbalize what you are recording and bring up any relevant points as they come to mind.

Another option if you’re feeling brave is to have a friend record you as you do the walk-around. This makes it a little easier as you can focus on selling the car, instead of holding the camera. You could also have the other person ask you questions and do a mock interview.

Then you’ll need to decide what to focus on during the walk-around. Typically you can literally just walk around the car once and focus in on any details you think are important, then sit in the drivers seat and back seat all while you do the little show and tell. You can turn the car on, play some music, record the exhaust or engine with the hood up, open and close all the doors and trunk, or go for a spin around the block. Literally or figuratively, kick the tires and give buyers an accurate idea of what they can expect.