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Photo tips - Creating good photographs for your eBay auctions.

The more mega-pixels the camera can shoot, the higher quality picture you will get. It is not necessary to spend a lot of money on a high-end camera just for limited use. When you load your pictures on to eBay, you will want to make them a size that will not take too long to download; and making the pictures smaller means losing some of the quality anyway. If you plan to use your camera for shooting a lot of close-ups of small items, a better camera will help. Get one that fits your budget. I would recommend at least a two mega-pixel camera. When you get your camera, check out what accessories will be included. On eBay many camera sellers include "starter" kits for free. Most starter kits include an extra battery, an extra memory card, some filters, a case, and a tripod. Check the auction to see what is included before you buy. You can also price these accessories separately but I think you will find that these "starter" kits are a good deal. Depending on how many pictures you shoot, I would recommend having at least two batteries and two storage cards. You should also get a full size tripod. Most full size lightweight tripods are okay for most digital cameras. I find I don't use my tabletop tripod much. It is just too small and not stable enough to hold the camera at the angles I would need. If you don't have a digital camera, you can use a regular camera and when you have the film developed you can get the pictures on a CD at most developers. This method is slower and more expensive to do. The other option for pictures is a scanner. A scanner works great for smaller, flatter items that don't reflect too much. It is great for baseball cards, post cards, and stamps. It will not work well for coins, as it would reflect too much.

When you get your camera, check out what accessories will be included. On eBay many camera sellers include "starter" kits for free. Most starter kits include an extra battery, an extra memory card, some filters, a case, and a tripod. Check the auction to see what is included before you buy. You can also price these accessories separately but I think you will find that these "starter" kits are a good deal.

Depending on how many pictures you shoot, I would recommend having at least two batteries and two storage cards. You should also get a full size tripod. Most full size lightweight tripods are okay for most digital cameras. I find I don't use my tabletop tripod much. It is just too small and not stable enough to hold the camera at the angles I would need.

If you don't have a digital camera, you can use a regular camera and when you have the film developed you can get the pictures on a CD at most developers. This method is slower and more expensive to do.

The other option for pictures is a scanner. A scanner works great for smaller, flatter items that don't reflect too much. It is great for baseball cards, post cards, and stamps. It will not work well for coins, as it would reflect too much.

Along with the digital camera, depending on the product you are selling, you may need a few basic items to help make good pictures. You will want to have a decent photo shooting area. If you are selling small products you should set up a table in a well-lit area. This can even be the kitchen table. On the table you should place a white or black piece of poster board as a backdrop to place your item on. Choose the white or black sheet depending on the one that has the best contrast with the product you are shooting. If you are shooting a larger item you can use a white or black bed sheet as a backdrop. Other colors can be used. I just have found that with white and black you can shoot most products. A good trick here is to attach the sheet to a wall or curtain rod, and drape it over a table placed below it. The idea behind using a solid color backdrop is that it will allow your product to stand out uncluttered by other things in the picture.

If you are shooting larger items, for example, a car, you should be aware of the background of the picture. Shooting the picture in a parking lot of cars where every car around it shows in the picture is not the way to have your car stand out. If possible position the car in an open area near a wall that will work for the backdrop. A mirrored office building does not make a good backdrop due to the reflections. For items larger than can fit on a table but smaller than a car, placing them near a wall works well.

If possible, you should use a non-direct lighting source. For example, bright halogen torchiere lamps that direct the light up to the ceiling can make a decent non-direct light source if your ceiling is not too high. Or you can use a swing arm lamp positioned to bounce the light off a close wall or sheet of poster board held near the product. This non-direct light will help create a soft lighting effect that that will show your item better. Harsh direct light often creates dark shadows and bad reflections.

Another way to create soft lighting for smaller items, and to make the pictures look professional, is to create a "photo light box". This is fairly easy and inexpensive to do. All you need is a table, a sheet of poster board, and an opaque storage box. The storage box can be found at most hardware stores or discount stores, like Wal-Mart, Target, etc. Many of these boxes have flip top lids. The type of lid does not matter. When you see one you think is right hold it up to a store light. You should be able to see that there is light coming through the bottom. If the storage box has solid or clear sides it will not work.

Once you have the storage box a quick modification is needed to make the "photo light box". Remove the lid from the box. Turn the box upside down. Find the middle of one of the long sides of the box and make a mark. Measure 2.5" to each side and make a mark. Measure 2" into the bottom from these outer marks and 2" down the side from these outer marks. Now draw lines making a rectangle from these "corner" markers. You should have a 5" wide by 4" rectangle (2" on each the bottom and side). Now carefully cut out this rectangle. You have now made an opening that will be used to shoot through.

To use the "photo light box" place a piece of poster board on a table, place your product on the poster board, and place the storage box over the product with the opening at an angle you wish to shoot. Turn on your light source. In my office, standard office lighting works great. Now bring your camera up to the opening in the box and shoot the product through the opening. Bingo, you now should have a great shot that with the correct lighting will look like the item is "floating" on a solid background without any harsh shadows.

Photo tip: I would also suggest using a tripod for your pictures. This is a great time saver from having to re-shoot blurry pictures.

When you go to shoot the picture, check the angles of the shot you are taking. I prefer to shoot at a slightly downward angle. If the product is small I shoot mostly downward so that I get only the product and the backdrop. Larger items can be shot at a flatter angle when you use a backdrop attached to a wall that is draped over a table.

If you really don't want to use any backdrop at least put the product by itself on your bed or floor and take the picture at a downward angle so that the rest of the room is not shown in the picture.

The numbers of pictures you will want for your ad depends on the product. When I sell computer parts I generally use only one picture. The buyers of computer parts normally know what they are getting by the description and I just include one picture so they can see the actual item. This is also when I sometimes use a "stock" photo for the ads. That is where the picture might not be the actual item but it shows how the item looks. This is easily done for items like hard drives. If you are selling a 30GB IDE hard drive and a 20GB IDE hard drive that are the same brand, the pictures will look almost identical. I take a picture of one and use it for both units. I put in the ad a statement saying that the picture is for representation purposes only and that the actual item may vary slightly. This is also good for RAM of the same type from different makers.

When you sell a collectible you will want as many pictures as needed to show every side and detail of the product. Rotate the product and shoot pictures of all sides. If the product has any damage, like chips or cracks, you will want to shoot close-ups of these to include in your auction.

Never try to hide any damage or problems that the product may have. If you are honest and accurate in your description of your item you can still get bids on it. I have even sold electronic products that were "guaranteed not to work". You never know who is looking and they might want the item in the condition it is in.

Once you have your product shots done you have to prepare them for the ad. This is a simple process. Most cameras come with a basic photo-editing program. If you don't have one you should be able to use the Paint program already on most PC's or you can download one from a site like Download.com.

First you need to crop off, or trim, the unnecessary sides of the photo. In photo editor you should have a tool that will allow you to make a rectangle on the screen. Just make it a little bigger then the product. You should then find the crop command under one of the menus, possibly the edit or format menu. If you make a mistake you can always undo it.

Once the photo is cropped you need to check the size of the photo before saving it. If the photo is too large it will take too long to download and customers won't wait around for it. You will have to see how your photo editor handles the photo sizing. I use Photoshop and it has a command for image size. I select a size between 250 and 500 pixels on the larger dimension. I find for computers and electronics 250 pixels is all that is needed to show the item. For collectibles I use a larger size of 500 pixels. Make sure you select the "constrain proportions" so the program will automatically resize the second dimension. Try it a few times and you will see that it is fairly simple.

Now you can save the picture. Choose a simple name that goes with that product. If the product has a SKU or model number, you can use that. You should save the picture as a JPG or GIF format. eBay doesn't recommend any other formats. I use the JPG format. In Photoshop it asks for a compression rating when saving a JPG file. I use 3 to make a small file. If it appears that your photos have lost too much detail you can use 4 or 5. You just want to keep the file size down. After saving the photo, you can check the file size and a good size will be under the eBay recommended maximum of 50KB. If you have a file size of over 100KB, you should definitely try to make it smaller. Several smaller pictures might be better than one that is too large.

Lets take a look at a few sample pictures. I used the stapler off my desk as my sample product for these pictures.

With a little bit of practice, taking photos to use with your auction ads will become fast and easy for you. The cost of your camera will easily be off-set by the high prices your ads will achieve with pictures include.

Good Photos to You!

Quick links mentioned in the article above:

• Buy-It Price Finder for Buyers

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