Photography

[statesplace]

What are some of your photography “best practices” 

I would love to hear how everyone takes their photos? 

I personally use a white backdrop and professional lighting kit as well as a mannequin (I’m a clothing seller) 

[femmefan1946]

Most of my products are flat.

So I scan them .

I use 320 dpi for most books and sewing patterns and 600 for stamps with occasional use of 1200 to show particular detail.

[ed8108]

With 3 dimensional objects, hold the camera very steady or on a support, daylight with flash fill lighting is great.

Backround should be uncluttered.

Take shots of important details & any damage.

[luckythewinner]

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@statesplacewrote:

What are some of your photography “best practices”  

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I sell music memorabilia. Put it on the carpet, turn the flash on, and take a picture. 

[sockmonkeydave]

@statesplace

Your camera and lighting seem to be OK.

Keep your fingers out of pictures.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@sockmonkeydavewrote:

@statesplace

Your camera and lighting seem to be OK.

Keep your fingers out of pictures.

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And be very careful if you are taking pictures of teapots!

[fashunu4eeuh]

Hi, I use a huge light tent with lights over head and on the sides, with a white background. I have one, but rarely use the tripod. After a bit of experimenting, settled on using my smartphone camera for all my shots. It gives me cleaner details than my best camera (which is a bit dated now).  For really small details needing to be shown, I clip a macro lens onto the iPhone and it works great--it handles even tiny marks such as hallmarks and karat weight, etc.

[disneyshopper]

I use a Sony Mavica, that uses a floppy disk.

My background is made of gray flannel.  I have 3 different types of mannequins that I use.  The lighting is 2 fluorescent tubes, one on each side of the object.  I also have a black sheet that I use if the object is light colored.

[sparkysretroelectro]

lighting is everything.

[kattinsanity]

Don't put items on your bed to take pics.  Many buyers get turned off when they see your item on your bed especially if you sell clothing.  Clothing also shouldn't be on the floor.  Also, take your pics in a clean area~~don't show the item with a bunch of other stuff in the background.  I just saw a seller the other day who posted pics taken on a table with junk piled all around that item and the background looked like they were a hoarder.

[sockmonkeydave]

@disneyshopper

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@disneyshopperwrote:

I use a Sony Mavica, that uses a floppy disk.

My background is made of gray flannel.  I have 3 different types of mannequins that I use.  The lighting is 2 fluorescent tubes, one on each side of the object.  I also have a black sheet that I use if the object is light colored.

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So do I... That camera was light years ahead of it's time.

[dbmm-media]

light box, camera mounted on a tripod 

[doug@ebay]

Hi @statesplace, also see:

http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing-and-marketing/photo-tips.html

https://community.ebay.com/t5/eBay-for-Business/Eight-Inexpensive-Tools-for-Creating-Beautiful-Produ...

[a_c_green]

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@ed8108 wrote:

With 3 dimensional objects, hold the camera very steady or on a support, daylight with flash fill lighting is great.

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I use a tripod with the camera (a Canon Powershot A540 circa 2005) set for a 2-second timer delay, so I don't have my fingers on the camera at the moment it takes its photo; it's rock steady and images are super sharp as a result.

I have the camera's White Balance set for tungsten (incandescent) lighting instead of automatic mode, and flood the area with incandescent household lighting, plus a hand-held automotive droplight (also containing an incandescent bulb) for fill-in illumination. No flash, as the color balance would be different, it would cause reflections back at the camera, and the background would be darkened (plus the camera doesn't need it anyway). 

My background is a 50%-gray towel in order to even the lighting, exposure and color balance across the whole image.

[thatsallfolks]

Set the camera's white balance properly. If a white background doesn't end up looking white in the photos, all of your other colors will be wrong too.

Select the proper pixel resolution. If you have a high-resolution camera (15+ megapixels) and you're using maximum resolution, you're overdoing it and wasting disk space and upload time.