How to take pictures of motorbikes to sell your bike online

When selling your bike online, it all starts with taking the right photos. You might have one of the best and most desirable bikes up for sale, but if you’re trying to grab attention with fuzzy, out-of-focus or incorrectly oriented shots, you’ll just end up making the job that much harder.

On the flipside, if you take and use the right pics, you’ll be fielding enquiries from interested buyers in no time – and a quick sale will often follow. After all, a picture tells a thousand words, as the saying goes, and when creating a bikesales ad you can upload as many pics as you like. But which ones, and how do you go about taking them in the first place?

To learn how to take pictures of motorbikes to sell your bike online, here are some bikesales top tips…

Before you’ve even picked up a camera or pulled out your smartphone, ensure your soon-to-be-someone-else’s pride and joy is looking its best. So, at the very least, give it a good wash, and preferably chamois it dry and then give it a bit of a detail.

Not a natural with a bucket and sponge? Then check out our tips on motorcycle cleaning (and maintenance).

Bike all shiny? Then next up it’s time to find the right location to photograph your ride. No, you don’t have to go to arty extremes, but you can help yourself out by finding a nice, neutral background that’s free of clutter.

That immediately rules out most garages or sheds, and many driveways too, where an assortment of equipment, tools, street lights, power poles, bins and other vehicles will often serve as a distraction. These can avert buyers’ eyes from the main prize, and even obscure your bike’s lines or end up as reflections in its paintwork.

Instead, try to find a clean and clear area, with a solid wall of the one colour as the background – our professional photographers often scout around industrial estates to find exactly that.

Forget taking photos at night or in very low light – unless you're a true pro, the pics just won’t work out. At the other extreme, full and direct sunlight can lead to too much contrast, where colours blow out and the detail in shadows is lost.

You’ll find the happy medium in the middle, which is generally on an overcast day. And avoid shooting in dappled light too – either shoot the bike fully out in the open, or fully undercover in even shade.

Now for possibly the most important part of taking photos for your ad: choosing the best angles. Although creativity can be an attention-grabbing point of difference, first make sure you cover off the basics in order to provide enough easy-to-see visuals to win over buyers.

To begin with, make sure you take your photos in a ‘landscape’ orientation like all the pics in this article, and not ‘portrait’ – landscape is the best orientation for buyers to view ads on bikesales, whether they’re viewing them on their mobile, a tablet, or a desktop computer.

Try to zoom in or out until the motorcycle almost fills the screen, leaving a small area around it for balance. Whatever you do, ensure you have a least one fantastic shot that shows the entire bike, as this will be the main ‘thumbnail’ image to hook buyers in, and it’s your best option for ensuring your bike stands out from the many others on sale.

Then take shots that show each side of the bike, as well as the front and the rear, along with some front and rear ‘three-quarter’ shots (i.e. from an offset angle that shows say one side and a bit of the front, or one side and a bit of the rear).

We also suggest taking close-up photos of any features, accessories or modifications your bike may have, as well as any major faults or issues – the more detail, the better, and buyers will generally appreciate an honest approach to any flaws.

And lastly, when you’re uploading your shots to your ad, make sure you have them ordered in the most logical and attractive way, and check that each photo is rotated correctly.

That’s it – you’re now well on your way to transforming your ride into a pile of cash!