Tips for Car Sales Shots

I often see this type of setup for used car shots.


Photo Credit: Vitaly Smolnikov original on Facebook

the shots generally look fantastic


Photo Credit: Vitaly Smolnikov orginal on Facebook

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I did tests with an SC2 and case.


More Shots from Photographer Maxim Bobylev

original site

On Facebook

Technique by Maxim Bobylev


Mounting Adaptor

I received a question about how to attach the RICOH THETA to the skinny end of the monopod.

I am using this package of adapters for $14.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KZF9JNC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For my monopod, I’m using the 3/8" male to 1/4" male adapter


aperture

Tip from Jason Zuidema and Joey Loreto. Thanks.

original source of information on Facebook.

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Lens Orientation - lens pointed front to back for more detail

by Cristiano P. Ferreira and Huub Vt Pad Bosch

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Update June 22, 2021 - Latest Tips

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Here’s my first attempt with my messy car lol

Nice job. that’s a good shot in direct sun.

Did you have to edit the shot after you took it? I’m asking because the used car vendors want to take high-volume shots with only automated editing. The new car market has enough budget for editing.

also,

I used to have a Subaru Outback. It’s was an awesome car. I gave it to my son and he loves it!

Do you have the Ascent?

Thanks for sharing.

Yeah I took 9 brackets and used 3 different apps for editing. My workflow is pretty much point and click but most of the editing was removing the camera from the shot. Proper camera placement and orientation is very important to avoid stitching errors since objects are so close to the camera.

I do virtual tours for businesses and I thought it might be a nice add-on when I do a car dealership to actually bring the user inside each of the cars in the showroom.

It’s a Forester, and on a side note, do you happen to know if there is a file size or quantity limit on theta360.com for photo uploads? I have a lot of photos I’d like to showcase on my website by embedding them from theta360.com so they display correctly.

I haven’t heard about any limits. However, it’s best to contact RICOH prior to putting all your business photos on a single site. It may be described in a end-user agreement document on the site somewhere.

For car interiors. Very quick setup mounting the monopod on a lightstand using a clamp.



Minimal stitched footprint, easily removed in post. Sorry for the low-res screenshot.

The 3 x 200g foot-mounted weights allow the monopod to be perfectly balanced on the lightstand and allow for greater extension of the shaft without putting any torsion on the clamp.

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Nice use of the counterweights. You could use that setup for high volume used car shots in an assembly line of cars. This reduces the guesswork of placing the camera on a small tripod in the vehicle. The interior placement varies per car type.

I’m doing a virtual tour shoot at a BMW dealership on Sunday so I’ll post some interior shots of cars in the showroom using this setup. The owner was very impressed that I basically found a “touchless” method of doing interior shots. Good selling point for new car photos.

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hey, congratulations on getting a gig going with high-end vehicles. maybe you can use that as a reference for other dealers or even automobile makers. There seems to be an increasing number of electric vehicle makers popping up.

Sound like an exciting opportuning. :slight_smile:

Thanks. It’s going to look great in my portfolio when I walk in to other dealerships.

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This definitely sounds like a good selling point. Looking forward to hearing how the BMW photo shoot goes.

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The shoot went really well and I’m really proud of the photos. Editing 360 photos for tours has to be the most challenging form of photo editing. Just getting the right color temp in every direction is a challenge but I have to admit this is my best work yet (staying humble of course).

The owner of the dealership didn’t really see the value in the interior shots, but he gave me time to take one for my portfolio.

The connections haven’t resolved yet on Google’s servers so I can’t share the Street View tour yet but here are some samples:

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Great job! Thanks for sharing these. Nice job eliminating the tripod and camera from the car shot. Looks fantastic!

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Thanks! Removing the monopod is always the easiest part of my edits lol.

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The two interior shots, for me, are especially interesting. Being able to look around inside the showroom is cool. Zooming all the way in still shows really nice detail. Also, the interior of the BMW is great. Cool to be able to zoom in on the dashboard and see basically everything. Nice work!

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Thanks! I appreciate the feedback. The sharpness when zooming comes from enhancement in Gigapixel AI, and I took some creative license with the car shot by making the exterior black and white so it draws your eye to the interior.

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Do you use Gigapixel AI with THETA regularly? It looks great.

Yeah I use it for every shot with the Theta Z1. Still doesn’t quite match the quality you can get with a DSLR or mirrorless, but I think it comes really close.

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Here’s one of the showroom pics with a before/after of Gigapixel AI set at 2x enlargement. Makes a big difference to the sharpness and I think clients expect that level of detail in a paid shoot.

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Wow, that’s a great example of using Gigapixel AI. That’s the $100 product, right?

For people viewing this thread, remember that you can click on Grant’s image and download the full size image on your computer for inspection.

You can then open up the 3378x1794 sample comparison that he prepared to really see the improvement that Gigapixel AI applied to the picture.