By Kamil Kaluski
When automakers advertise cars, they don’t really advertise cars. They advertise dreams. You see commercials with off-roaders climbing the tallest of mountains and barreling through a desert. You see muscle cars with clouds of tire smoke behind them and sports cars drifting effortlessly through the city. For people buying cars it isn’t about the car, it’s about a dream and the vehicle giving the opportunity to achieve it.
This doesn’t not really trickle down to used cars unless you have an exotic of some kind. That said, it sure helps to have good pictures of a nice, clean car. Since I am planing to sell my ’95 Integra GS-R on Bring-a-Trailer, I decided that I wanted better than good pictures. While I can take a decent picture, I am far from being a professional photographer. So I hired someone who is a professional photographer.
The pictures were taken by a local New England photographer whose work can be seen in various automotive magazines. Follow Syd on her Instagram account and check out her website. She’s got a real talent for cool artsy pictures and other stuff. For those who might be curious, yes I did pay the same price as anyone else would. There was no collaboration or work-for-exposure, or any kind of bullshit like that.
Looking at the pictures I have one big regret – not taking the front license plate off. It would make the car look much smother without the big contrasting thing in the front. It also looks like it needs some negative camber in the back, because it does. I’ve been meaning to get some LED headlight bulbs, too. That would have given it a refreshed look.
In part 3 of this series we will discuss additional pictures. I took some pictures of my own, specifically pictures under the car and some details showing true mechanical condition of the car. It’s important that for internet-based sale we show the true condition of the vehicle. Making a crap vehicle look good is easy but dealing with a dissatisfied buyer, and thereby the auctioning medium, isn’t good for anyone.
Following that, I’ll write about compiling all information the seller should have on his vehicle. Everything from the owner’s manual and service records to keys and additional items such as factory wheels. To have a truly good posting I may need video, too. A video would convey the sounds and give the posting a more life-like feeling.
All images copyright Syd Cummings/Hooniverse 2020.
Jeff Glucker
I browsed a bit of Syd’s portfolio, and I love her eye and her passion for the automobile.
Photography of a car for a sales transaction is different from photography of a car as an artist’s muse, however. I like the last shot of the steering wheel from across the front seat, but as a potential buyer, I would be more interested in a close up of unblemished interior features (or identifying the severity of any blemishes requiring disclosure).
Similarly, as a potential buyer, my first thought of the stacked log picture is not “what an interesting juxtaposition of a piece of semi-ancient machinery posed in front of some lumber ready to be milled”, it’s “OMG! I’m from SoCal and what sort of horrible owner would ever allow a car he cares for within 100 yards of snow?”
Your goal is to sell the car, not the pictures.
The logs make me giddy. I am as much a wood-lover as I love cars. This is some old-growth forest and even if the car is not squarely in my sphere of potential vehicles to own, the background drags me in. Frankly, a lot of the very best presented cars on BaT do that to me. Another Porsche, VW bus or Ferrari really are as interesting as three different tastes of tapwater to me, but if the photos are done well…I’ll click on it.
I think a mix of artistic and descriptive photos are the best formula. The former inspires the right half of the brain, piquing interest, and the latter gives the left something to evaluate. A bunch of images showing various scratches, rust holes, and panel alignment gaps do nothing to make me want to buy a car, while artsy shots alone won’t give me enough information to pull the trigger.
The logs make me giddy. I am as much a wood-lover as I love cars. This is some old-growth forest and even if the car is not squarely in my sphere of potential vehicles to own, the background drags me in. Frankly, a lot of the very best presented cars on BaT do that to me. Another Porsche, VW bus or Ferrari really are as interesting as three different tastes of tapwater to me, but if the photos are done well…I’ll click on it.
Yes, but in all your visits to BaT, how many bids have you placed?
Mentally? A gazillion? 😛 I am not the kind of person that buys the best off BaT, I buy the worst of Craigslist and then go to the Hooniverse to complain.
Mentally? A gazillion? 😛 I am not the kind of person that buys the best off BaT, I buy the worst of Craigslist and then go to the Hooniverse to complain.
In contrast, I am precisely the kind of person who buys the best off BaT then comes here to brag about it for years (years!) afterwards:
Not so much these days now that they’re primarily an auction site, though.
Am I lost in translation?:
“Best: of the highest quality, or being the most suitable, pleasing, or effective type of thing”, Cambridge Dictionary.
Seriously though, you have bought some of the most interesting cars off BaT and we will forever laud you for that.
The logs make me giddy. I am as much a wood-lover as I love cars. This is some old-growth forest and even if the car is not squarely in my sphere of potential vehicles to own, the background drags me in. Frankly, a lot of the very best presented cars on BaT do that to me. Another Porsche, VW bus or Ferrari really are as interesting as three different tastes of tapwater to me, but if the photos are done well…I’ll click on it.
By the sounds of it, Kamil’s strategy is solid though, lure people to look at the arty shots, and follow it up with his more prosaic documentation of condition.
I think a mix of artistic and descriptive photos are the best formula. The former inspires the right half of the brain, piquing interest, and the latter gives the left something to evaluate. A bunch of images showing various scratches, rust holes, and panel alignment gaps do nothing to make me want to buy a car, while artsy shots alone won’t give me enough information to pull the trigger.
As a spectator who has neither bid on nor auctioned a car on the site, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with BaT. On the positive side, I love the variety and quality of cars that go up for auction. It makes for great internet window shopping, and I’ve seen some cars on BaT that I’ve never seen anywhere else. Some of the photography alone can be desktop-background-worthy, and I’ve learned a lot about models I’ve never read about before.
On the negative side, there’s the community of regular commenters. Many (not all) are nit-picky, narrow-minded critics of every car that comes up for auction. Some of them are downright rude, and when I’ve pointed that out, I’ve gotten responses like “that’s the point” or “that’s the fun of it”, as if tearing up someone’s personal taste in cars is a sport. It seems petty and trollish, and often detracts from the auction itself.
I’m all for sharing opinions. I’m sure I’m regarded as an opinionated old crank here on Hooniverse, because I often throw in my two cents about new cars that are discussed here. However, I feel in those cases I’m being critical of a manufacturer or the market in general. On BaT, comments invariably target the car owners, so I feel it’s better to focus on the positives. Clarifying details is fair game, but being nasty shouldn’t be.
Regardless, I wish you luck on your auction, and look forward to seeing it go live.
“I’m sure I’m regarded as an opinionated old crank here on Hooniverse…”
I like to think I’m regarded as a levelheaded voice for sensible decisions and as a master of advanced road-racing technique.
I’m sure my username checks out.