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Taking Great Product Photos for eBay
Every eBay seller would like to attract customers and increase
sales. Successful eBay sellers know that better product photos
could make you more money, because your buyers will feel more
comfortable buying items from you. But taking great product
photos isn't always easy, read these quick tips to find out how
to take great product photos for eBay.
1) Using a digital camera with fully automated shooting modes
will make taking product photos much easier. It allows you to
instantly preview, upload, and edit your photos with your
computer. 2) Use a tripod to avoid blurred images which occur
when you handhold a camera. 3) Use proper lighting. Some people
find natural outdoor lighting the best, but never use direct
lighting such as a flash. Flashes wash out colours, details, and
create harsh shadows, especially when doing close-ups. Use soft,
diffused lighting to avoid losing detail in your photo and
create soft shadows. If you're a serious eBay seller consider
buying a photo tent or light box to diffuse the light for you.
Alternatively you can use lights and buy white plastic light
covers, which will also create diffused light. 4) Find a good
backdrop for your product and avoid clutter which distracts the
eye. Your product should be the only item you're shooting. If
you're using something like a photo tent or light box it's easy,
or alternatively you could use a sheet or piece of fabric.
Larger items can be more difficult but be sure to cleanup the
background so that there are no distracting objects. 5) Avoid
underexposing your photos, especially if you're shooting against
a white background or outside in bright light. Your digital
camera should have an over/under expose button that allows you
to compensate and adjust the exposure. When taking pictures
against a white background you might want to increase the
exposure by +1 so that it lets more light into the camera and
the background becomes a pure white. 6) Getting close and
filling the frame with your subject will produce a better photo,
and also help avoid clutter. Buyers like to see the details of
what they are buying. The best way to take good close-up photos
is to use your cameras macro setting, which is designed to focus
at short distances. 7) Your product should be sharp and in
focus. Take care to focus correctly. Auto focus on your digital
camera may not always produce the best results as it can
sometimes be fooled. In these cases use aperture priority mode,
and set an aperture of 8 or higher to ensure that your entire
photo is sharp. When you increase the aperture your camera
compensates with a slower shutter speed, so remember to use a
tripod. 8) Take photos of different parts of your product and
try different angles. Photographing your product from many
angles helps add depth and avoid a flat online appearance. Pick
one main overall shot of the item, but also use other detailed
photos or different perspective shots. The more buyers can see,
the more likely they will buy your product rather than your
competitors. 9) Once you've saved all your photos to your
computer, you can optimize your pictures for online viewing.
Make sure your images are saved as JPEG files and increase the
compression so that your pages will download more quickly on a
user's computer. Also crop your photos so that it is composed
only of your product, eliminating white space and making your
product look better. 10) Edit your photo. Adjust the light and
contrast to improve on your original photo. Make your subject
stand out by adjusting the contrast between the foreground and
background colours. You can also make certain parts of your
picture lighter or darker to improve the overall look.
Once you've practiced photographing your products using these
tips, visitors will have a better shopping experience and will
be more likely to bid on your items.
About the author:
Peter Horner is an experienced photographer who co-created the
large format printing company DesignerPrint. Using digital
printing technology DesignerPrint create canvas prints, block
mounts, and poster prints. http://www.designerprint.co.uk