How to prepare your car for a shoot, from a hundred-plus sessions
Two hours the day before decide most of what the camera will see.
We've shot more than a hundred cars now, and the ones that come out best share a habit: the owner did the boring work the day before. Not a full detail, not a paint correction — just two hours that remove the things a camera notices and a person doesn't.
The day before
- Wash it, then dry it properly. Water spots and streaks show on every panel at print size. A drying towel and a leaf blower for the seams beat any wax.
- Do the wheels last and do them well. Wheels sit closest to the lens in the main angle. Wheel faces, barrels if you can reach, and tyre dressing on the sidewall — not the tread.
- Glass inside and out. The camera sees through the windows into the interior; dusty glass turns that into a grey haze.
- Empty the interior. Phone mounts, air fresheners, the bag on the passenger seat, the receipts in the door. Dash and console wiped.
- Decide about the plate. Keep it, cover it, or bring a show plate. Say so before the shoot so the photographer isn't guessing.
The morning of
- Fuel. Rolling shots and location moves burn more than you'd think.
- A quick detailer and two microfibres in the car. Fingerprints on black paint appear from nowhere.
- Sunshade out, mirrors out, antenna sorted, any sticker you don't want in the photo dealt with.
- Arrive early. The light window at sunrise is short, and the first twenty minutes of a shoot are usually the best twenty.
What not to bother with
Stone chips, small swirls, a tired badge — at photographic distance these disappear, and up close they're honest. A car that looks like it gets driven photographs better than one that looks like it lives under a cover. Don't spend money on a correction for the sake of a shoot.
Tell the photographer what the car is about
The single most useful thing an owner can do is say what they love about the car. The exhaust note. The way the rear lights sit. The wheels they saved for. That sentence decides which angles get the time, and it's the difference between a set that shows a car and a set that shows your car.
Two hours the day before. That's the whole secret.
Mentioned in this post
The things it's about.
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