Vehicle Photos That Sell: Image List with 25 Motifs

How do you achieve vehicle photos that sell? Step by step with a smartphone

Vehicle photos that sell are created when you photograph every vehicle at the same spot, in good light and in landscape format according to a fixed image list with 25 motifs. mobile.de recommends at least that many images for the maximum value on image count; the list below fully covers that.

According to our research, mobile.de doesn't prescribe an official order for the images. For professional vehicle photos we recommend the following order: first the title image, then exterior views, interior, details and documents, and finally the defects.

No.	Motif	Note
1	Three-quarter front left view (title image)	Turn wheels slightly toward the camera
2	Front straight-on	Point wheels straight
3	Left side	Wheels straight, whole vehicle in frame
4	Three-quarter rear left view	Wheels slightly toward the camera
5	Rear straight-on	Wheels straight
6	Three-quarter rear right view	Wheels slightly toward the camera
7	Right side	Wheels straight
8	Three-quarter front right view	Wheels slightly toward the camera
9	Front wheel and tire	Close-up
10	Headlight and front section	Close-up
11	Engine bay	With flash
12	Open trunk	With flash
13	Cockpit through the open driver's door	Steering wheel straight
14	Instrument cluster with odometer reading	Ignition on
15	Center console with radio and navigation	Devices switched on
16	Steering wheel and controls	Air vents straight
17	Driver's seat	All seats in the same position
18	Passenger side	From the passenger door
19	Rear seat bench	Belts tidily laid out
20	Headliner or sunroof	Only in clean condition
21	Feature detail, e.g. reversing camera	Matching the listing text
22	Feature detail, e.g. tow bar	Matching the listing text
23	Key and service booklet	On a neutral surface
24	Defect close-up	Scratch, dent, wear
25	Defect overview	Shows location on the vehicle; if no defect: tire tread

1. Place the vehicle at a fixed photo spot

Choose a spot with a calm background, such as a plain wall or an empty area in the yard, and use it for every vehicle. AutoScout24 names good lighting conditions, an appealing background, and high image resolution as features of good listing photos. With a fixed spot your inventory looks consistent across listings.

2. Check the light before you start

mobile.de evaluates whether the photos were taken in good lighting conditions. The vehicle should be evenly lit, without harsh shadows and without reflections of buildings on paint and windows. The sources don't name a specific time of day. So take a test shot and check it on the screen at full size.

3. Hold the phone sideways and align the wheels

AutoScout24 recommends images in landscape format that show the vehicle from all sides and in detail shots. According to the AutoScout24 photo guide from 2020, for three-quarter views you turn the wheels slightly toward the photographer, and for front, side and rear you point the wheels straight. Hold the phone at the same height for all exterior shots.

4. Photograph the title image as a three-quarter view from the front

AutoScout24 writes: "The first image is the most important. Because it shapes the interested party's first impression of your vehicle." We recommend the three-quarter front view for this, because it shows front and side at the same time. Take several shots and use the sharpest one.

5. Walk around the vehicle once

You photograph images 2 to 8 of the list in one walkaround: front, side, three-quarter views and rear. That way you don't forget a side, and everyone on the team photographs in the same order. The whole vehicle must be in the frame, without a cropped bumper or mirror.

6. Photograph the interior in a standard position

Align the steering wheel and air vents straight, put all seats in the same position, and switch on the radio and navigation, as the AutoScout24 photo guide recommends. For the odometer, switch on the ignition. Beforehand, clear out anything that doesn't belong to the vehicle, such as parking discs or workshop slips.

7. Photograph the engine bay and trunk with flash

According to the photo guide, you photograph the engine bay and trunk with flash, because these areas would otherwise be too dark. Then come the key, service booklet and the feature details that you mention in the listing text, so that images and description match.

8. Show defects openly

Photograph every scratch, every dent, and every visible sign of wear once close-up and once in overview. According to § 434 para. 3 BGB, the usual condition also includes what the buyer can expect based on the seller's public statements, in particular in advertising. Because listing photos are advertising for the vehicle, defects have a fixed place in our image list.

9. Upload the images in a fixed order and check the score

Upload the images in the order of the list, without later adding logos, overlays, or phone numbers; according to AutoScout24, such overlays are only distracting. At AutoScout24, 50 images per listing are free, so you have room for additional images. Afterwards, open the quality check in the mobile.de dealer area. For how to bring the remaining criteria to 100%, see our post mobile.de quality check: How dealers reach 100%.

How long do dealer photos take and what do they cost?

With a smartphone, dealer photos mainly cost work time. mobile.de's quality check is free, and listing images at AutoScout24 also don't cost anything extra.

How long you need per vehicle depends on your photo spot and your practice; we had no reliable figures on this. The image list mainly saves rework: if you photograph the same 25 motifs in the same order every time, you don't have to retake photos because an angle is missing.

Item	Cost	Note
Smartphone and image list	no additional cost if a phone is already available	your work time
mobile.de quality check	free for registered dealers	since February 2, 2026 in the dealer area
Images at AutoScout24	50 images per listing free	applies to all dealer listings
AI image editing, e.g. Car Photography AI	price not named in the source	recognizes perspective, generates shadows, swaps backgrounds
A21 Social (videos from your listing photos)	Starter €29, Pro €79, Enterprise €149 per month plus VAT	as of October 27, 2026

According to AUTOHAUS, Car Photography AI "can be used both directly integrated into photography and for mass processing large volumes of images." You can read about where the legal limits of such edits lie in the section on the most common mistakes.

The photos also affect the cost of your inventory, because better listings can lead to inquiries faster. What an extra day in stock costs and how you can counteract it, read in Reducing days in stock: 7 steps for used-car dealers.

Who should take the vehicle photos at the dealership?

Photography should be done by a fixed person at the business who takes over each vehicle right after prepping and works through the image list the same way every time. That can be the detailer or a salesperson, as long as responsibility and process are clearly regulated.

Each vehicle is photographed once before the first listing. New photos are needed when the condition changes, for instance after a repair, or when the old photos show snow or seasonal features that the AutoScout24 photo guide advises against. A second person on the team should be able to take over photography as a backup and use the same list.

Once the photos are in the listing, you can turn them into content for social media. Our recommendation for this is A21 Social: the software uses AI to create short vertical videos from the listing photos and vehicle data, and publishes them automatically on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. You don't need an agency or time for filming and editing for this. Because the video is created from exactly these photos, it gets better the more carefully you implement the image list.

You can also link the YouTube video additionally in the mobile.de listing; how this works is shown in our post Uploading a mobile.de video: How it works for car dealers. A video doesn't factor into the quality check's score, because the check only evaluates image quality, image count, vehicle attributes, and description length. So for the score the photos remain decisive; the video supplements them for buyers who prefer to watch a video rather than click through images.

An example: Your detailer photographs the week's new arrivals every Tuesday according to the image list, a salesperson uploads the images and checks the score, and A21 Social turns every new listing into a video for your channels. If you'd also like to shoot videos yourself, you'll find ideas in Dealership Reels: 14 video ideas without a camera crew. A21 Social's plans are €29, €79 or €149 per month plus VAT.

What mistakes do dealers make with vehicle photos?

The guidance from mobile.de and AutoScout24 warns against too few images, poor light, a busy background, and logos, overlays, or phone numbers added afterward. On top of that there are images that show a better condition than the vehicle actually has.

Mistake	Why it hurts	How to do it better
Fewer than 25 images	Image count makes up 20% of the quality check	Work through the image list completely
Dark or blurry images	Image quality makes up 40%	Fixed photo spot, test shot, flash for engine bay and trunk
Portrait format for listing images	AutoScout24 recommends landscape format	Hold the phone sideways
Logos, overlays, phone numbers in the image	AutoScout24 advises against this	Enter contact details in the listing fields
Snow or seasonal decoration in the image	The photo guide advises against this	Remove snow and decoration, photograph under cover
Crooked wheels, adjusted seats	Looks messy; the photo guide specifies a standard position	Align wheels and steering wheel, set seats the same
Defects left out or retouched away	Listing photos can be public statements within the meaning of § 434 BGB	Show every defect close-up and in overview

On the last point, § 434 para. 3 sentence 1 no. 2 BGB states that the item must have a condition that the buyer can expect based on, among other things, "the public statements made by the seller [...] in particular in advertising or on the label." Listing photos that show equipment or a condition the vehicle doesn't have can therefore be relevant for warranty purposes.

Under sentence 3 of the same provision, the seller is not bound by such statements "if the statement had been corrected in the same way or an equivalent way at the time the contract was concluded, or if the statement could not have influenced the purchase decision." The statutory text doesn't distinguish here based on whether an image was edited with AI, for instance with a swapped background. This section reproduces the statutory text and does not replace legal advice.

How AI is used further in dealerships and where the decision remains with humans is described in our post AI in the dealership: What car dealers need to know in 2026.

How do you tell that the new photos are working?

You can see right away whether the new photos are working from the score in the mobile.de quality check, and after about a month from the views and inquiries in the statistics of mobile.de and AutoScout24. Compare vehicles photographed according to the new image list with similar vehicles from before.

In the quality check, first look at the partial scores for image quality and image count, which together make up 60 percent of the score (40 percent image quality, 20 percent image count). If image quality doesn't reach the maximum value, check the light, sharpness and angle of the individual images. We also mention the roughly one-month period for views and inquiries in our post on the mobile.de quality check.

What you measure	Where	When
Partial scores for image quality and image count	Quality check in the mobile.de dealer area	right after uploading
Listing views	Statistics in the dealer area of mobile.de and AutoScout24	after about a month
Inquiries per vehicle	Statistics in the dealer area of mobile.de and AutoScout24	after about a month
Days in stock	Your inventory system	ongoing, compared to previous vehicles

According to AutoScout24, listings with multiple photos tend to receive more inquiries. Whether that also applies to your inventory is shown only by your own comparison. So note the date for each vehicle from which it was online with the new photos.

How we reviewed this guide

For this guide we evaluated the trade press (AUTOHAUS and kfz-betrieb), the dealer pages and photo guide from AutoScout24, as well as the statutory text of § 434 BGB, in October 2026. We were unable to access mobile.de's original press release and photo magazine. The quality check's figures therefore come from the trade press, and we only reproduce Florian Baur's statement in paraphrase. We also found no official mobile.de specification regarding the order and format of the images, nor a legal source on pixelating license plates. The AutoScout24 photo guide is older and comes from Austria; we only use it for practical tips. Every figure in this post is linked to its source.

Our recommendation for the next step: work through the image list with your next new arrival and have A21 Social create videos from the same photos for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. Plans start at €29 per month plus VAT.