Photographing Cars
What photos should a car listing include?
4 min read
Lead with a photo of the whole car from the front three-quarter, then walk around it: front, side profile, rear three-quarter and rear. After the exterior, show the interior (dashboard, odometer, front and rear seats, controls) and the details buyers check: wheels, trunk, engine bay and any damage. That comes to about 20 photos, the number Autotrader UK says buyers expect to see on an advert. In Clearcoat, put the exterior shots in one Vehicle and generate them in one Showroom, so each exterior shot comes back in the same clean room, from the angle you took it, with the car itself as you photographed it. List the interior and detail shots as you took them.
The shot list, in listing order
Every shot below appears in Autotrader UK's seller advice or its photo advice, and counting the controls as separate photos, the list comes to about 20. The grouping and the order after the first photo are our recommendation: exterior first, because that is what earns the click, then the cabin, then the checks a buyer makes before calling.
| Order | Shot | In Clearcoat |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Front three-quarter, whole car in frame. This is the main photo | Showroom |
| 2 | Front, straight on | Showroom |
| 3 | Side profile | Showroom |
| 4 | Rear three-quarter, from the opposite side to the first photo | Showroom |
| 5 | Rear, straight on | Showroom |
| 6 | Dashboard, full width | As photographed |
| 7 | Odometer | As photographed |
| 8 | Front seats | As photographed |
| 9 | Rear seats | As photographed |
| 10 | Steering wheel, gear shift, and window and seat controls | As photographed |
| 11 | A wheel close up, especially alloys | As photographed |
| 12 | Trunk, open | As photographed |
| 13 | Engine bay | As photographed |
| 14 | Any damage, close up | As photographed |
For a convertible, shoot the exterior with the roof up and again with it down. Add a photo of anything that sets this car apart, such as an option or upgrade a buyer would search for. Taking the front three-quarter from one side and the rear three-quarter from the other means both sides of the car appear in the set.
Which photo should lead the listing?
The front three-quarter of the whole car. Autotrader UK's seller advice says "a photo of the whole car, taken from the front corner is best" for the main image. It shows the face and one full side at once, and as Autotrader's dealer guidance puts it, "the hero photo entices potential buyers to click through to your advert".
How many photos does a car listing need?
About 20 is a sound target. Autotrader UK tells sellers "buyers expect to see 20 images on an advert" and allows up to 100 photos (seller advice last updated 9 January 2025, checked September 2026). Its 2023 guidance for dealers puts quality first: "20 great images are better than 50 poor quality ones", and it recommends taking the same number of photos for every vehicle you list. Limits differ between marketplaces, so check yours before you shoot.
Which photos should go through Clearcoat?
The exterior set, rows 1 to 5. That is the part of the listing that carries a background, and on a lot each angle has a different one: other cars, the building, the road. Autotrader's dealer guidance asks for the opposite, photos "in a consistent location with minimal background distractions". Moving each car to a clean wall for five angles is the time cost Clearcoat removes.
In Clearcoat, a Vehicle holds up to 24 photos of one car, and one Generation runs the photos you select through a single Showroom, returning one finished photo for each, from the angle you shot it. So the whole walk-around comes back in one room, and choosing the same Showroom for every car makes the inventory match as well. Clearcoat cuts the car out of your photo, lets the room's light, reflections and floor shadow fall on it, then puts the original car pixels back. Nothing on the car is redrawn: paint, badges, wheels, trim and wear come straight from your photo. The front and rear shots show the plate, and Clearcoat hides it by default. Each finished photo is one Credit.
Clearcoat keeps the angles you shot and does not create missing ones, so shoot the full exterior list on every car, with the whole car in each frame.
The interior and detail shots, rows 6 to 14, go on the listing as photographed. A Showroom is built for a whole car standing on its floor. All of a Vehicle's photos are selected in the Studio by default, so either add only the exterior shots to the Vehicle or deselect the others before you generate.
Should a car listing include photos of damage?
Yes. Autotrader UK lists "any damage" among the photos buyers look for. A close-up shows the buyer exactly what they are weighing, and it saves a wasted viewing when the damage turns out to matter. Clearcoat keeps it visible too: a scratch in the front three-quarter is still there in the Showroom photo, because the car's pixels are the ones you photographed.
