Planning a car interior 360 shoot well makes an enormous difference to the quality of the final result. Over 20 years of shooting car interiors for manufacturers including Volkswagen, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, SEAT and Farizon, we have developed a clear view of what works, what doesn’t, and what clients wish they had known before arriving on set.
This guide covers the key decisions you’ll need to make: where to shoot, how to prepare the car, what to expect from studio conditions, how to choose between 360 photography and 360 video, and how backgrounds are handled in post-production.
Where should you shoot the car interior 360s?
One of the most frequent questions we hear is: ‘Why can’t we shoot our car interior 360 on location in Scotland / Paris / South Africa?’ The honest answer is: you can, but you probably shouldn’t.
Car interior 360s are built from many individual images captured over several hours. Outside, light changes constantly. In the space of 30 minutes, a shift in cloud cover can mean your early frames and late frames look like they were shot on different days. That inconsistency is expensive and time-consuming to fix in post-production, and it almost always compromises the final result. In a studio, you control the light completely. You can hold the same conditions for as long as the shoot takes. The investment in studio time pays for itself in the quality and consistency of what you get back. That said, location shoots can work for specific applications. If you need the car in a particular real-world setting for context, or if you’re combining the 360 with location video, a hybrid approach may make sense. But for the interior 360 itself, studio is almost always the right answer.
New car models are years in the planning. Million of pounds go into the development of the design and technology. This investment won’t get the 360 portrayal it deserves by attempting to shoot it in a field in Wales. In the studio, we control the intensity and mood of the lighting, and ensure the car is perfectly lit. Ultimately, this will allow the viewer to see all the detail in the car, even in darker areas, such as footwells. If the designer has spent years perfecting the design of the pedals then it’s vital to showcase this.
What should you look for in a car studio?
Not all studios are set up for car work. A purpose-built car studio offers things a standard commercial studio doesn’t: infrastructure for powering a stationary vehicle, overhead lighting rigs designed for large reflective surfaces, overnight secure storage, and the confidentiality protocols needed for embargoed pre-production models.
Cleanliness matters more than most clients expect. A car interior full of leather, polished trim and glass surfaces will show every speck of dust in a high-resolution 360. Studios set up for automotive work understand this and maintain conditions accordingly.
If you’re shooting a pre-production or embargoed model, check that the studio has experience handling NDAs and secure storage. This is standard practice for manufacturer-level shoots, but worth confirming early.
How should the car be prepared for the shoot?
The car needs to remain powered throughout the shoot. Interior lighting, ambient displays, and console features should all be active, as they contribute to the look and feel of the final 360. This means the car will be running, but stationary, for several hours, which not every vehicle handles without some attention.
For this reason, we strongly recommend having a technician present, especially for pre-production models. A technician who knows the car can keep it powered, manage any quirks, and make sure every interior feature is operating correctly when it comes to being photographed. For production models this is less critical, but for any new or unreleased vehicle it is almost essential.
Before the shoot, agree a pre-production checklist with the studio: clean all surfaces, remove any temporary protective coverings, ensure all screens and displays are active, and confirm which trim configuration is being shot if multiple variants exist.
Should you use 360 Photography or 360 Video for a car shoot?
These are different tools that suit different goals, and it’s worth being clear on what each one does well.
360 photography won’t give you a driving experience, but will tell you all about how it feels to sit in that car before you start the engine. It gives you the highest possible image quality. Because the 360 is built from individual still frames, you get the full resolution of a stills camera across every part of the interior. Viewers can explore slowly, zoom into details, and examine materials and finishes closely. This is the right format when the brief is to showcase the interior itself.
360 video is better for experiential content: a simulated drive, a track experience, a walk-around of the exterior. The resolution is significantly lower than stills-based 360 photography, which means fine details in the interior, stitching, texture, instrument clusters, are harder to render clearly. It also means the craftsmanship that manufacturers invest years developing is harder to communicate.
For most manufacturer interior shoots, 360 photography is the primary deliverable. 360 video works well alongside it for experiential content, but is rarely a substitute for it.
How are backgrounds handled in a car interior 360?
The background visible through the windows is added in post-production. This is referred to as a backplate. Shooting the interior in a studio gives you full control over what appears outside the car, which is one of the reasons studio shoots are preferable to location shoots even when a specific location is desired.
Backplates can be anything: an abstract pattern, a city skyline, a mountain road, a desert landscape. They need to be shot at the correct eye-height so that the perspective matches the interior view. If the car will be marketed in multiple regions, you may also need to consider whether the road position or environment is appropriate for each market.
Backplates can be sourced from a library, but commissioning them specifically for the brief almost always produces a better result. A library image will rarely match the exact lighting conditions, perspective or mood of your shoot.
We shoot backplates as part of the commission where the brief demands it. For clients including Peugeot and Jaguar, shooting the backplate specifically for the project made a significant difference to the quality and coherence of the final 360. If the interior 360 is the hero asset for a model launch, the backplate should be treated as part of the creative brief, not an afterthought.
Where can the finished car 360s be used?
A car interior 360 is a versatile asset. Once produced, it can be deployed across a wide range of platforms and touchpoints:
Manufacturer and dealer websites, car configurators and product pages, Facebook and YouTube (both support 360 content natively), VR headsets and immersive experiences, exhibition kiosks and showroom installations, and digital retail displays.
It is worth thinking about distribution early in the planning process, as different platforms have different technical requirements for file format, resolution and delivery method. Knowing where the 360 will be used before the shoot allows the production to be set up correctly from the start.
Fancy a chat about car 360s?
We love creating great car 360s, and talking about it comes pretty close. So give us a call if you want to chat through how it could work for you. We’re on +44 (0)20 360 30231 or click to use the contact form and we’ll get right back to you.
Frequently Asked Questions: Planning a Car Interior 360 Shoot
A car interior 360 typically takes a full day in the studio though times can reduce based on the brief, and if there are multiple vehicles. The exact time depends on the complexity of the interior, the number of seating positions being captured, and whether multiple trim levels or configurations are being shot in a single session.
Yes. The car needs to remain powered so that interior lights, ambient lighting, infotainment screens and console displays are all active during the shoot. For pre-production models in particular, having a manufacturer technician present is strongly recommended to manage the vehicle throughout the day.
It is possible, but studio shooting produces significantly better results for interior 360 photography. A 360 is built from many individual images taken over several hours. On location, changing light conditions create inconsistencies between frames that are difficult and costly to correct. For exterior shots or experiential video content, location shoots are more viable.
A backplate is the background environment composited into the windows of the car in post-production. The car interior is shot in a controlled studio, and the view through the windows is added separately. Backplates can range from abstract designs to specific locations such as city streets, mountain roads or racetracks. Where the brief demands it, we shoot backplates as part of the commission to ensure the background matches the lighting and mood of the interior shoot exactly.
360 photography uses individual still frames to create a high-resolution interactive view of the interior. It is the best format for showcasing materials, finishes and craftsmanship in detail. 360 video is lower resolution and better suited to experiential content such as test drives or track footage. For interior showcasing, 360 photography is almost always the stronger choice.
Key items to confirm before a car interior 360 shoot include: all surfaces cleaned and polished, protective coverings removed, all screens and interior displays active, ambient lighting enabled, the correct trim configuration confirmed, and a technician present if the vehicle is pre-production or has non-standard features. Agreeing this checklist with the studio in advance avoids delays on the day.