2018 watermarks & picture policy - need clarification

[tomsgrocery]

So we all heard about time some time ago. Well, in our case we have half of our listings watermarked. We're selling most common & popular grocery items so we don't actually need watermarks but we've put it on those listings where we spent quite enough time to show the quantity or express the item advantages, etc.

But the thing is that I've seen this on the other post, another seller mentioned that he talked with an ebay non-customer-support worker some time ago. She said: eBay would have an automated tool that would search the photo for digital modifications and automatically flag the item. 

So I guess all of you and I would like to have the digital modifications explained.

I mean how it will be with multi variation listings or listings where you're selling more than one item, let's say a pack of 5, 10, 100, name it yourself.

I'll add two pictures for your reference:

#1. Multi variation listing

This is a multi-variation listing for 9 different flavors. No watermarks, no additional text, no marketing as per ebay policy, BUT, the picture is digitally modified as I had to put all those flavors into one main picture. So the question is, will it fit with ebay picture standards?

#2. Listing for a pack of 5.

This one has watermark, so it will have to be removed, BUT, again, this picture is also digitally modified. Will it wit in with ebay policy? Of course, I guess this would not be a problem to take all those 5 cans of coffee and picture then all together but as we don't have proper lightning and digital cameras the items will not look as good as per manufacturer stock picture. But what if we would want to create a listing say for 20 cans, 50 cans at once, I'm already imaging building a pyramid of coffee cans and picturing it.  Hope it not how it's going to be.

Let me know your thought about this.

In addition, you all remember the "active content" and "https" updates. I'm glad that there was a tool inside the ebay that highlighted which listings are affected. I wonder if there will be something similar with the "picture policy" thing. I guess most of the seller are already updating the pictures, but what if they will miss one or a few listings. Will they be notified about those listings or will they be automatically hidden from the search results? If so, does anyone know when ebay will start to show notifications about affected pictures/listings?

P.S. I'm new at discussion boards and I'm sorry if I posted this into wrong shelf, but I would love to hear your opinions, as well as the answer from ebay team.

[dhbookds]

Seems like we create more problems for ourselves...........  digital modification could mean anything done to a picture......cropping, enhancing color/changing size, etc.  Ebay has said to remove watermarks so I that's what I would concentrate on........

just my opinion

[accentsongifts]

@tomsgrocery  I took this with a digital camera and a light tent.  I am sure a phone camera would also work.  I do not have a photography background, yet I think the image looks pretty good.  Although most of the manufacturers I work with do supply images (and that is a plus), it is really not too difficult to take great looking images.  Light tents range in price starting under $100.  Even if you do not have a 'purchased' light tent, you can try making your own.  There are youtube videos on how to do that.  It is the lighting that is the key to great photography.  

Good luck, and great selling

-Deby

[shipscript]

@tomsgrocery

eBay is looking for applied text and graffiti on images. Your montages should be fine.