Members Login | Help | Contact Us

SaleHoo

Picture Perfect: How to to sell your item with the photo

Saturday 07 November 2009
by SaleHoo.com

Success Story

I am a Marketing Coordinator for an ISP and I believe SaleHoo is a great company to purchase promotional products and items for sales incentive programs. I always check SaleHoo.com before I look anywhere else.

Want to be the next SaleHoo success story?


Click here to join SaleHoo today!

Greetings!

If you had to rate yourself on a scale from 1 -10 for photography skill (10 being fantastic, 1 absolutely terrible), where would you be?

Did you rate below 8? Then this newsletter will tell you everything you need to know!

And if you've got a camera already, then try practicing some of the techniques I recommend as we go along.

Remember, if you have any questions, we're here to help 24 hours a day, 6 days a week.

The importance of pictures

Normally when we purchase something, we use our senses to determine whether or not the item meets our requirements and is value for money.

We squeeze avocados at the supermarket, run our fingers across clothing and furnishing fabric, listen to the quality of CD and DVD players, inhale the scent of perfumes and food, and sip at wine samples.

But while buying online gives us the luxury of carrying out our purchases more efficiently (without the hassles of parking and dealing with other people!), it severely limits our ability to judge the quality of our purchases with our senses.

On eBay, as with every other online shopping site, your judgment is limited to just one sense: sight.

Anyone who bids on your item, then, has only your photos and text description upon which to base their purchasing decision. Unlike retail stores, you cannot rely on the product to 'sell itself' with its glorious texture or mouth-watering smell.

The quality of your pictures and the impact of your words are the only selling tools that you have, and you need to know how to make the most of them.

Essentially, the purpose of your photo is two-fold: to entice the viewer to buy, and to give an accurate portrayal of your item.

In this lesson, I am going to take you through the process of creating a superb series of pictures to show off your item to its best advantage.

Sourcing Pictures

In terms of finding your pictures, you have two options:

1. Manufacturer's product photos

Many people use the manufacturer's pictures for their auction. However, there are three problems with this. Firstly, legality over using these pictures is unclear. While some lawyers say it's completely legal, others say it's an abuse of copyright. Despite this, lots of people use them anyway and get away with it: so go ahead and grab a picture of a Sony laptop to put alongside your item if you wish. But, to avoid any 'issues', you might prefer to take the alternative option of providing a link to the manufacturer's website.

The second problem with using manufacturer's pictures is that lots of other people in your category might well be using the same picture, immediately removing your chances of differentiating your item by your pictures.

The third problem with manufacturer's photos (if two isn't enough to put you off!) is that, while they look stunning, they are usually not an accurate representation of your actual item, unless of course, it's brand new. The older and more 'used' your item is, the more inaccurate the manufacturer's picture is.

2. Take your own photos

This is a more time-consuming, and perhaps, initially costly, option, however, it has the enormous advantage of giving you complete control. As any marketer will tell you, the more components you can control in your marketing the better. Relying on someone else to help promote your item is far from ideal. Therefore, by taking your own photographs, you are able to test different numbers of photos, and their background, quality and dimensions, to see which work best for you.

**Did You Know??**

5 photos sell better than 1 on eBay - even more reason why you should take your own.

Taking Your Own Pictures

When taking your own pictures your objective is to create photos that stand out from the crowd. Not gloomy, fuzzy ones like everyone else's. To do that, however, you will need a few pieces of equipment.

What You'll Need:

Now if you gasped in surprise and dismay at the thought of having to purchase a digital camera, then I ask you to bear with me for the next few moments while I explain to you why it is so utterly important that you have this equipment if you are going to sell seriously on eBay.

Firstly, it's quick. With a film camera, you would have to take your photos (without being at all sure of the quality), take them to the shop to get developed, and then pay to have them put on a disk. If you're lucky, and live near a photo shop, this might take an hour or two. If not, this process could take anything from a couple of days to a week.

Alternatively, of course, you could scan the printed photos yourself - but this then raises the problem of degraded quality.

On the other hand, a digital camera allows you to do all of this yourself, without incurring extra costs. You can keep taking photos until you know you have perfect shots, and then post your photos within minutes of taking them!

***Tip***

Ideally, your camera should be 3 mega pixels or above, have an f-stop of f16+, and have macro, which allows you to take clear photos at close range.

Purchasing a digital camera will probably be the most expensive item to buy when setting up your business. However, I believe it is a non-negotiable one.

On eBay, you can purchase a good 3 mega pixel digital camera for anywhere between $50 and $300, with the average price being around $120. All in all, this investment is very small for the return it will provide.

As for the other items on the inventory, you will need the poster board and the table to place your item on, and to provide the white background.

Yes white. For most items, white is the background that looks the most sophisticated and professional as it matches the eBay background. Of course, if your item is white, silver, or any other pale color, then you will find it necessary to use another, darker color instead.

Photo cubes are a very useful addition to your arsenal if you are going to be photographing regularly. Plus they make setting up incredibly easy. To get one, go to www.ezcube.com. Prices range from $55 for the tiniest (suitable for jewelry and knick-knacks) through to $174.95 for the largest (big enough to photograph small pieces of furniture in).

The lamps are to light the item effectively. Professional photographers use different lights in order to blast out all of the shadows and make the item (or the model in many cases) look better. The right lighting gets rid of glare, shadows, and reflections: all of which make your ware less appealing. Place the strongest light to one side of your item, and the second next to the camera to fill in the shadows.

Taking the picture

Photographing Small Objects

Small objects are relatively easy to photograph, as it is easy to set up a small platform on which to photograph them.

While it is possible to get good photographs of small images outside on a cloudy day, you might find it more convenient to set up a table-top studio inside if you are going to be photographing them regularly.

To do this, simply lay some plain white fabric over the table top, with half of it draping over the table, and the other half positioned behind the item on the box, to create a wave. This will create a smooth background for your object.

Position your two lamps either side of the camera. Now, to do a close-up shot you will need to use the macro function on your camera. This enables you to get within a foot, even inches away from your subject. Don't zoom in with the macro on, as this will blur the image. You will get a sharper picture by physically moving in.

Also, at close range, the flash is usually too bright and will dazzle your object - particularly if it is made of reflective material.

Photographing Large Items

Unless you have a large house, you probably won't have room to set up a permanent studio to photograph large items. Instead, you'll need to find a way to photograph them effectively where they stand.

Here are some tips:

Vehicle photography

If you're selling a big ticket item, such as a car, then you might consider getting someone else to take the photograph for you. www.auction123.com provide a number of different, reasonably-priced, photographic packages for sellers on eBay.

Some other tips and tricks

Editing and Uploading Your Photos

Once you have taken your photos, the next step is to carry out any editing that may be required. Most digital cameras come with a USB cord, making it fairly straight-forward to get your photos onto your computer.

Some cameras come with software, which should open automatically when you plug in your camera.

Alternatively, you can purchase software (in a variety of packages and capabilities) in which to edit your work. For Mac OSX users, iPhoto will open automatically when you connect your camera. For Windows users, all other software is fairly intuitive to use, with simple instructions for uploading your photos. Otherwise, you can use a memory card to store your pictures.

Adobe Photoshop Elements, is a good, cheaper version of Adobe Photoshop. It's simple to use and allows you to do all the little editing jobs you might require, to make your photo look professional.

Adobe Photoshop Album is also very cheap. Find it at www.adobe.com/photoshopalbum. The starter version is free, while the full version is less than $50.

For Macintosh computers, iPhoto is really good. It's usually included with new Macs and available as part of Apple's iLife suite.

Cropping your picture, adjusting light and color levels, and editing out background clutter are all likely to be useful to you starting an eBay business. eBay Enhanced Picture services lets you crop your picture and adjust light and contrast, but if you want to do any further editing, you will need to use some imaging software.

Some popular imaging software:

**Top Tip**

Statistical analyses have shown that auctions using edited images actually sell more often, and yield higher dollar amounts than auctions using the exact same photos in their unedited form.

This doesn't mean that you are going to airbrush all the chips and cracks out of your vase, but rather, lighten or darken the photo, change the background, and remove any shadows.

Photo Size

On eBay, the largest photo image is usually 500 x 375 pixels. But in fact, digital images larger than 400 x 300 aren't needed and take longer to download.

If you are using imaging software, then your digital pictures will probably be too large to transfer over the Internet quickly. eBay only allows you to upload images up to 2.0 megabyte in size. However, if you use eBay picture services, then your resizing will be done for you.

Make your picture dimensions smaller. eBay prefers pictures 400 pixels wide by 300 pixels tall. You'll probably have to resize yours to fit if you are using imaging software.

eBay allows a number of different graphic file formats: JPEF, BMP, GIF, TIF, PNG and Animated.gif. Your photo will not be accepted unless it is in one of these formats.

Most cameras use JPG images. JPGs have more colors that GIFs, so they are better for photographs. However, note that JPEG compression will make your photos poorer quality when you decrease the size.

Note: Photoshop comes with a Save for Web command that makes it easier to prepare your pictures.

Alternative Hosting Services

For a monthly fee, you can upload any number of photos and images to a third-party hosting service. They will provide you with a link that you can then direct your eBay listing to. This is a way of avoiding eBay's photo charges.

There are a number of Web services that cater to auction users. Some will store your photo for auction ads for free, others for a fee.

Hosting Your Own Images

If you know how, a good option can be to host your own images. If you have a server or a website, then you can store your photos on that.

Hosting your own images means that you avoid paying extra costs, and it also means that you are able to replace pictures at any time during the auction. I'm not in any way suggesting this for nefarious purposes of course! But if, as the auction progresses, you with you had taken a better photo than the current one, or you wish to add extra photos, then, as your own host, you can. Simply call your new photo the same name as the old (e.g. violinornament.jpg) and replace it on your server.

Hosting your own photos also gives you a lot more freedom in terms of sizing. If you think your item could benefit from a larger picture, then you are perfectly able to do one this way. Just remember that pictures larger than 800 x 600 pixels will take a long time to load, so apart from special circumstances, you should keep within the 400 x 300 mark.

Workbook

  1. Have a look on eBay for your item and compare the photos available. Then do a general Google search for your photo and peruse any manufacturer's photos you can find. Do you see any angles/lighting themes that work well for this item? Or that look terrible for that matter?
  2. Practice taking some shots of your item. Even if you are a very inexperienced photographer, practice will help a great deal. And the great thing about the digital camera is, you don't have to waste money on the photos that don't turn out so well! Try experimenting with different lighting and backgrounds.

Helpful Links

The main purpose of selling on eBay is to receive the profits! But what are the best ways to receive payments? And how can you decide which ones are best for your business? Find out next week in the 12th SaleHoo newsletter!


Exclusive SaleHoo Offer- Click Here!
Previous Newsletters
01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10