Taking Great Photographs for eBay : eBay Guides

This guide is written to help fellow eBayers take better photographs and increase sales from  their eBay Stores, auctions or websites if they have one. Having studied photography at college and then as a hobbyist for many years, I've picked up a few tips along the way so I'm happy to pass on what I've learnt. I'll be updating the guide regularly meanwhile, a few things to get you started... 

Invest in a roll of background paper this can be purchased cheaply, approx £5, from any good graphic design centre ie. Paperchase ect. Rolls are available in a variety of colours 4 ft wide by 12 ft long, white and black would be the best colour options.

Always place your product/subject as far away from the background as possible this will avoid any nasty shadows on the background, this can be controlled by correct lighting, more about that later.                    

    Lit from the side to make product jump out from the background.                   

To light your product for maximum impact your main light source, or key light (this is the strongest light source) should be positioned at 45 degrees to the item, for the old adage "keep the sun behind the camera" this approach will make you photograph look dull, lifeless and lacking in detail, your customers need to be able to see the stitching on clothes or the detail on antiques, make that product look juicy and desirable!

Now that you have created those shadows created by the 'keylight' we now have to get rid of some of the, or to lighten them to balance the image, otherwise parts of your item will be cloaked in darkness, this is easily done by using a reflector positioned opposite your 'key light' (the pros sometimes use a second light source) but a simple piece of white or silver backed card will suffice, or if you want to give your model a tan try uing gold, make sure they're not wearing a white top though.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Light from below for dramatic effects with transluscent objects.

For your light sources invest in a couple of 'Daylight Simulation Bulbs' these cost about £3.50 a pop but they'll last forever, you can buy these at Ryness Electricals and use in conjunction with natural daylight, they can be used in most light fittings but the angle-poise lamps are best so that you can aim the light at your subject.

Be more creative! An excellent technique for lighting glass and translucent products, try firing another light through the object from below or behind (check that your light source is out of shot though)  To make toiletries look really cool and sexy, smear the bottle with baby oil then spray gun with water to create a droplet effect making an otherwise dull product look fresh, clean and cool, the magazines do this all the time.

Flick through the glossy mags and try to emulate them, OK we can't all afford Kate Moss! but if you're selling clothes, ditch the coat hanger on the back of the door and invest in a cheap mannequin. You could even use some of their 'strap lines' and adapt them  to your own products, be careful of keyword spamming though.

           Light from the side to emphasise detail and texture.

Always, always, always use a tripod preferably with th time delay set to avoid camera shake and blurry images.

I prefer to independently host my pictures, I use my website server but there are free services such as photobucket which is very reliable and the images are brilliant, I know this is a matter of preference in respect of download times ect. it's just a fact that even if David Bailey were to host his pix on the eBay server they would look bad, probably has something to do with space or whatever. Aside from that, you can have as many pix as you need for free.

Final point! invest in and image editing program like PhotoShop or CorelDraw, images can always do with a bit of manipulation, a bit sharper a little brighter, resizing or cropping to reduce download times ect. All the pros use these tricks, you didn't think those models look that perfect, I use to work on fashion shoots many years ago, trust me they don't...

Regards Homeboytrader

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