CAR PHOTOGRAPHER EDINBURGH

Car photography in Edinburgh and Scotland

For the last five years (July 2012) my regular day to day photography job has been photographing cars for a number of local car dealers and franchises. I worked part time for three years then made the jump to full time photographer mid 2011 as I was so busy with y photography. Quite frankly this was the best decision I’ve ever made professionally.

Around Spring 2012 I was contacted by a company called Manheim who asked if I was interested in photographing cars for them. I’m a huge car person, I really really like cars and to be given the opportunity to photograph something regularly that I really like was great.

Over the course of the five years a lot of things have changed with the car photography job, most franchises and dealers that were with Manheim have gone solo (many reasons for this) while some have kept me on a freelance basis. My longest and most reliable freelance car photography jobs have been with the John Clark group and their Land Rover and Jaguar dealerships.

My job is to go on site, take photographs of their stock, do whatever photoshop wizardy is necessary (trust me, some of the cars can be really disgusting and I’m not targeting any particular franchise with this statement), do the occasional head shot, site shop and provide the photos ready for them to be displayed online.

Amongst the franchises I’ve worked with at various stages are Land Rover, Jaguar, Honda, Volkswagen, Toyota, Volkswagen commercial (vans), Skoda, Audi, Subaru and possibly others that I can’t even remember. Some franchises have utter bastard management (not naming names here) while other franchises have been a real pleasure to work with.

But I thought it would be interesting to share some of the photography I’ve done in this job. I’ve decided 2017 is going to be the year I do more personal things so at some point I will do some compositing with some of the cool cars I’ve photographed but this is my daily job and if you’re interested in working together I’d love to hear from you.

I love the Jaguar F-Type’s and especially the R models. They’re a bit wee for me but they sound incredible and they’re awesome to drive.

I would very much like an Audi RS3. Looks good, very quick, sounds great.

Ranger Rover Sport. Hated the old version, love the new version. Very very nice vehicles to drive.

Rolls Royce Wraith iii. Stunning car from the 1960s

Land Rover Discovery Sport

I photograph all kinds of cars but one of the most common cars I photograph is the Land Rover Discovery Sport. I thought I’d use this section to show you what a whole car looks like when photographed.

Autogas LPG Taxi

A really fun job, I worked with Autogas who are the UK’s leading suppliers of LPG (liquid petroleum gas) who wanted to take photos of one of their taxi’s in popular tourist spots around Edinburgh.

Are you interested in working together?

Here is some information about how I work. For more please use the contact form below.

First of all, how much do you cost?

Let’s get this out of the way first. For one off shoots, depending on location, time of day and number of photos you want, I charge on average £120. If you’re a dealership and you want photos similar to the Range Rover photos above and want to work together on a regular basis, I charge £40 an hour locally. If you want me to travel I just charge for the petrol. There’s a minimum 1 hour charge and time after is charged by the half hour.

How far can you travel?

How far do you want me to travel?

Do you use portable backdrops?

Generally no although I can on request and for a fee. Generally plain white backgrounds look too plain, as you can see in the last photo with the Range Rover SVR. If you have an embankment, patch of grass and even a wall with a consistent background I would recommend using those instead.

What kind of editing do you do?

Out of principal I edit every single photograph I take. For most cars I brighten things up a wee bit, basically add some shine. I can photograph number plates on, photoshop sales people out of backgrounds and get rid of quite large amounts of dirt if necessary.

We're a busy dealer, how else can you help us?

I’m happy to drive cars around if necessary. Just from sheer experience (I’ve photographed literally tens of thousands of cars) I know which exact angles work best. Do bare in mind I won’t have my own insurance to drive cars so if I bash a car it won’t be my fault, I can’t be liable. If on the other hand you can provide me with insurance then no problems at all.

Will the photos match Autotrader's standards?

Yes of course, I’ve noticed whatever Autotrader does the car dealers follow. Autotrader can list up to 100 images per car but generally I photograph around 20 photos per car and to the standards required by Autotrader.

What's your turnaround?

First thing the next morning. I provide all the photos by WeTransfer or Dropbox (depending on which you find easier) and they will be waiting for you in your mailbox the following morning.

Finally, what car do you drive?

My current car is a mk7 Volkswagen Golf R which I quite frankly love. Although I may upgrade/downgrade in 2017.