Car interior photos and 360 views: making the inside of the car look as consistent as the outside
The inside of a car is where buyers judge how it was treated, and where listing photos are usually weakest. How interior photos and a 360 interior view are cleaned up and kept honest, and what to shoot.
Why interiors are hard
A car interior is a dark box with windows all round it. Shot from inside, the dashboard is in shadow while the windscreen is a white rectangle of sky. Shot from the open door, the far side disappears. Whatever the car is parked next to is visible through every window, so the cabin is framed by the car park. And the camera makes dust, crumbs and fingerprints far more obvious than your eye does.
The outside of a car can be fixed by moving it or waiting for better light. The inside is harder, which is why interior shots on most listings look like they were taken in a hurry in a car park. They were.
What Carzbooth does with an interior photo
The light across the cabin is evened out, so the passenger side is not lost in shadow and the dashboard is not black against a white windscreen. Reflections are cleared from the glass, so the outside world is not painted across the dash. The view through the windows is replaced with the booth, so the cabin is not framed by the lot. And the seats, trim, screens and controls are left exactly as photographed, wear and all.
What it does not do
It does not clean the seats. A stain, a cigarette burn or a worn driver's bolster is in the finished photo in the same place. The inside of a car is where buyers look hardest for honesty, and a cabin that looks newer than it is costs the sale at the viewing. The light is tidied; the car is not.
The interior 360
A single 360 capture from the driver's seat, taken with a 360 camera or a phone panorama, becomes a view the buyer can look around: dashboard, both front seats, back seats, roof lining, boot through the rear window. It is the one picture that answers "what is it like to sit in" without the buyer driving over. Paired with the exterior spin, a buyer can walk around the car and then sit in it, all from the listing.
What to shoot
Open the doors for light. Front seats from the back seat, looking forward. The driver's seat bolster. The rear seats from the opposite door. The dashboard with the ignition on so the screens are lit. The odometer, readable. The boot, empty, and the floor lifted if there is a spare. The controls hands touch. Our guide to car interior photography goes through each shot.
Vans: the load area is the interior
For a van, the cabin is half the story and the load area is the other half. Rear doors open from behind, side door open, floor and lining, racking and extras. The same light-evening and glass-clearing applies, and the same rule: ply lining that has had a hard life stays looking that way. Our van photography post has the full list.
One lot, one look, inside and out
The reason to run interiors through the booth is the same as for exteriors: consistency. When every interior on the lot has the same even light and the same booth outside the windows, a buyer comparing two of your cars compares the cars, not the weather they were photographed in. The interiors product page has what is included.