How to Take Pictures for eBay - Photography Tips to Capture the Best eBay Photos

How to Take Pictures for eBay - Photography Tips to Capture the Best eBay Photos
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Put Your Items in the Best Light on eBay

As the holidays approach, many people are going to be starting to shop for gifts for their friends and family. And, since online shopping has dramatically increased over the years, you want to get as many people as possible to check out your eBay listings and potentially buy your items. You, however, need great photographs of your goods to accomplish this.

#1: When setting up your photographs, you need to remember to have a clear background. You don’t want clutter that will distract from your merchandise or confuse potential buyers. A wood table would work great. Or, place the items on a fabric that is solid in color and that will contrast nicely with the item. For jewelry, white works the best.

#2: If you must have other things in the background, make sure they complement the item. Dried flowers can be perfect for this purpose.

#3: For clothing, try to have some type of model, either human or mannequin. This will make the garments easier to photograph and more appealing to the eye.

#4: When it comes to lighting, unless the object belongs outside, you’re going to want inside lighting. But, try to not use the flash if it’s a reflective item. Instead, place it by a window for natural lighting or bring in additional lighting like lamps. You want to have the light distributed nicely around the item.

#5: When photographing smaller objects, set your camera to macro mode (usually a flower symbol). This will allow for extreme close-up shots, but your photographs will not come out blurry.

#6: Take your pictures from several angles. This way potential buyers can see the item from all sides and obtain a better idea of what the item looks like. If the item has a flaw or crack, take a picture of that. Shoppers need to know this information.

#7: Take at least five or six pictures of the object that you’re selling. This way, if the pictures are noisy or distorted, you have several other photographs from which to chose. It saves you time since you won’t have to re-stage your pictures

#8: Photograph your items on the medium resolution setting (1024x768 pixels) on your camera or crop them to this size. This will make them easier to upload and download. Also, if you crop them, you can cut out any unnecessary objects in the photograph. Plus, if your photographs are too large, eBay will crop the images. This could distort your photographs.

These are just some simple ways to enhance your photographs and put your items in the best possible light. The better the photographs look the more likely a shopper will buy your merchandise for their next Christmas gift.