One of the keys to a good Ebay listing is to take good, clear, close-up photos of the item you are selling. A picture really is worth 1,000 words. Take a look at some of Ebay's listings and see what a difference a good photo makes. I know when I'm shopping for something, if the photo doesn't look pretty good, I usually don't even click on it. Taking photos for your listings does not require an expensive camera or one with 12 MegaPixels, although it must be a digital camera. Ebay will shrink the size if it taken with these too many MPs. Currently I use an older 4.0 MP Canon PowerShot 520. With my computer's photo editing program, the photos generally look like they are taken with a much more expensive camera. A special camera studio is not required either.
I take my photos in our dining room in the daytime when the sun is out but not in direct sun (our dining room faces north). I never use a flash, preferring to brighten or highlight using our photo editing program. I have been told that most digital camera photos need some lightening up to enhance them a bit. I usually have the camera set on CLOSE-UP to get a good zoomed-in shot. I get out a dining room chair and put a padded table leaf on it (see photo). The pad in the photo is narrow but I have wider ones that I use for larger items. Once in awhile I even use the carpeted floor or even the 12" tiles to illustrate size.
After awhile of taking photos and listing items, I decided I wanted my listings to have a distinctive feature. I purchased a yard of pastel blue silk and a yard of black velvet to use as backgrounds for my photos (see photo). I have used red sequined fabric as a background for Christmas items on occasion as well. The black piece is my most often-used background and shows up most items quite well. Whatever color you use, it's best that it be a solid color rather than a stripe or a plaid. Make it your signature color.
I then lay the fabric over the chair and table leaf to make a background (see photo). Each item is photographed separately. Although it only takes a couple of minutes to set everything up to take photos, I generally don't bother unless I have a least five (5) items to list.
The final photo shows how an item looks against a clean, dark fabric. This is the photo that I used in the listing. The velvet gives it a little texture rather than a matte look. Try this yourself for some nice photos. The next step is to load the photos on to your computer and edit them to look their best. Try to make certain that the color of your item (in real life) matches what shows up on your computer screen. Depending on the type of lighting, it can be different. I have found that if I try to take photos using incandescent lighting, there is a yellow / orangish tint to the photos. Natural daylight is, by far, a better light source. Also, don't make a shadow with your body if you are standing with the light behind you. Most often, you'll only need one photo in your listing but occasionally you may want several. I used to use Auctiva, a third-party management system to host the photos but after they raised their fees, I closed my account and let Ebay host them instead. It's much easier that way and the Ebay template is simple to use.
TOMORROW: Writing Your Listing
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