Photo Guide for Salvage

One of the best ways to attract bidders to your scrap car in the Remove My Car auction is to include photos. When it comes to scrap cars, a picture really is worth a thousand words as it allows potential buyers to actually see the condition of the car (and its parts) for themselves.  The more information they can get from your car, the more likely they are to enter the bidding war.

Hold it right there! Don’t take any photos of your scrap car just yet. If you want to get the best price at auction, you need to think about the quality of your photos too. There’s a little more to it than just pointing and clicking (though not much more to it – your auction photos don’t need to be award winning!).

The following hints and tips will help you take photographs that appeal to bidders and get them heading for the Bid button.

What Photos Do I Need to Take?

Bidders are interested in the condition of most parts of your car, including the panels, the interior, and the engine. So you need to take photos of most parts of your car. We recommend that you provide:

Exterior

We recommend that you take a photo of your car from each corner. Yes, that simply means that you stand diagonally in line with each of your car’s lights and take a photo (4 in total). When you take these photos, you should aim to get the entire car in the ‘frame’ of the photo, rather than ‘cutting it off’ the edge. The easiest way to do this is to aim the camera at the opposite corner of the car and then zoom out until the entire car is in the ‘frame’. Ideally, you want to have a small margin of background around each edge of the car.

XXX PHOTO OF CAR TOO FAR AWAY XXX

XXX PHOTO OF CAR PROPORTIONED CORRECTLY XXX

Damage

Bidders are on the lookout for damage to wheels (alloys especially), side panels, bonnets, the roof, seating…pretty much every part of your car. So if there are scuffs, scratches, dents or rust, you should get snapping.

For these photos, you will need more of a zoomed in photo, but you still need to think about the entire ‘frame’. A zoomed in photo of the dent is of little use to bidders, as there is no way to determine how large the dent is or where it is on the car. It is better to zoom out a little, so that more of the car is included in the photo.

XXX Zoomed in on dent of panel, far too close so can’t tell size of dent xxxx

Xxx Same dent, but more of the panel in the photo so you can tell where it is and how big it is xxx

Can a few snaps really make all the difference when it comes to selling your scrap car in the RMC auction? Yes, they can. If a buyer sees two cars of the same model at auction, and one has a single photo and the other has several, well-taken photos, which car will they bid on? Exactly – the one that provides the most information as it is a lower risk.

Dig out your digital camera, there’s extra money to be made from your scrap car.

To enter your end of life vehicle in the Remove My Car scrap car auction, go to our auction page.

Get to Know your Camera

Before you take your photos, spend some time getting to know the features of your camera (or the camera settings on your phone).

Take a photo with the flash on and off. 

Zoom in and out

Lighting

Don’t worry, we’re not going to suggest that you buy studio lighting and backdrops so that you can capture the car from its best side. For your auction photos, the important thing with lighting is to take the photos in daylight. That might seem obvious, but we do get some photos that are taken at night or in the evening with only the camera’s flash as lighting. This doesn’t allow bidders to see the car in sufficient detail and the reflection of the flash can make it difficult to see scratches, dents etc.

Forget the flash and wait until there is enough natural light to take a good photo.

XXX GOOD CLEAR PHOTO IN DAYLIGHT XXX

XXX PHOTO AT NIGHT/POOR LIGHT WITH LOTS OF FLASH GLARE XXX

Clarity

Blurred and out of focus photos are a big turn-off for bidders. How are they to know if the blurring is accidental or has been done on purpose to hide something? The clearer a photo is, the more information the bidder has available to them, and that can only be a good thing.

To take a clear photo that is not blurred, make sure your camera’s focus settings are right and then stand still when you take the photo. Try to keep your hands as steady as possible as well as your feet. If you have one, you could try using a tripod.

If possible, you should also try and clear the area around the car so that there is nothing else to distract the bidder’s eyes. You want them to be looking at your car and nothing else. For interior photos, it really helps if you have cleared the car of any rubbish, CDs etc., to o.

Xxxx Blurry photo  xxx

Xxx clear photo xxxx

Composition

This just means ‘framing’ the image in your photo. You need to make sure that the part of the car  you are photographing is not ‘cut off’ from the edges of the photo. Also, you need the car to take up most of the photo area, otherwise there is too much background and not enough car.

Ideally, you want the car to take up the majority of the centre of the photo, with just a small margin of background around the edge. You don’t need to worry about the ‘three sections’ rule that photographer’s use, as you are presenting detail, not trying to make your photograph look arty.

XXX CAR WITH TOO MUCH BACKGROUND XXX

XXX CAR WITH JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT XXX