Becoming a Photographer for your eBay Listings

You’ve heard the expressio “a picture is worth thousand words”. Well, the same thing applies when you are selling something over the internet. If you have good pictures, sometimes your buyers won’t even bother reading your description before clicking the “buy it now” button. It’s more then just placing the item you’re selling on a table, clicking the flash button and adding it to your auctions. I’ll show you how to take pictures that will blow your customers away and make them want to come back for more.

So why do we need good photos? Well, they encourage your bidders to buy your product, they tell the product’s story before they even look at your description, and they build your creditability as a seller. What you need to take these amazing photos is a quality digital camera that will cost around $200 to $300 dollars. One that is good enough quality and able to get the job done, but not one that’s going to empty your bank account. You need quality lighting, which I will talk about more later, and a background color that you’ll use for 90% of your pictures. I recommend a plain white table cloth that you can lay out to put your product on. Now, if you’re selling something white or light colored, you obviously need to get a darker color so your item doesn’t blend in. The last things you might need are props; sometimes it’s hard for the buyer to tell the actual size of the product. A good prop to use is placing a dollar bill next to your item so it gives the buyer a comparison of how big the item is that they are bidding on. Make sure you state in your listing that the dollar bill is just a prop and not included in the auction because, believe it or not, I’ve had a customer complain because they didn’t get the dollar bill when they received their item.

The last thing I want to talk about is your set up area and how to shoot your photos and apply the right lighting. You first need to designate a specific area in your house just for photography. Assemble a table and your backdrops so that you can display your products with nothing else appearing in your final picture. As for your lighting, if you want to spend a few bucks, then the way to go is to buy a lighting kit that provides you with multiple lights that you can display from all different angles. You can get by with regular lighting, but, remember not to place it too close to your item. As for the camera (that you purchased off eBay because it was much cheaper than buying it from a Best Buy), it’s crucial to know all the features and hot to use them. The first and most important thing to do when shooting your picture is to always turn off the flash on your camera. The flash can cause your photo to be blurry and unclear when uploading them to your auction. It’s important to know that the screen resolution set on your camera must be 640X480 or smaller, otherwise you’re unable to upload it to your eBay auctions. An error will occur and you’ll have to resize your picture so that it fits in your listings.