Comments on: How to Shoot Pictures For eBay

By: Internet

Internet — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:12:38 +0000

Every time i come here I am not dissapointed, nice post

By: nice!

nice! — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 03:19:16 +0000

There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points in your article.

By: easyphoto

easyphoto — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:44:49 +0000

Ha Ha! Ya’all take way way too much time for ebay photo’s. Here is what i do and my pics turn out fine. I have a Kodak easy share cheapy camera. Find a nice tall dresser with off white wall or use off white poster board. Point and shoot. If flash is too reflective on item use lamp on side. Quit trying to be so perfect. My pictures are wonderful and have you seen the horrible pictures and the stuff still sells! So you can stand and shoot. If you spend so much time with pics you will not get it back in what you sell. Unless you have pricy jewelry or something – it’s not worth your time. Look at my pics – they are fine. Celestial630 on ebay.

By: Anna

Anna — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:12:47 +0000

I’ve done some ebay photography for some of my clients. Mostly apparel photography on a mannequin, accessory and jewelry photography. To save time on editing I shoot apparel, bags and shoes against a gray background rather than white. I use a large softbox and 2 other lights rather than a light tent, but the gear I have is overkill for ebay.

With jewelry I use a bent coat hanger, fishing wire suspended between and a white background. Gives me a pure white background very easily. The earrings look suspended in air…also good for pendants. For clip ons I use a clear piece of plastic from Office Depot – I think its a small sign holder I broke in half costs $2. I drilled small holes in another piece for studs.

I’ve looked into more expensive solutions over the years, but my homemade set up seems to work best. I sometimes wrap a piece of colored card around the jewelry to make a tent if I want a background other than white. Editing jewelry is a pain in the butt! so I try to do as much as I can in-camera.

When I shoot for ebay my clients don’t want me to take the same time I would with an e-commerce shoot. Usually you only sell the item once…

–Anna
Style Campaign

By: ÐµÐºÑÐºÑƒÑ€Ð·Ð¸Ð¸

ÐµÐºÑÐºÑƒÑ€Ð·Ð¸Ð¸ — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:11:51 +0000

An article I wrote on how to get more from your pictures used on eBay.

By: CLS

CLS — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:15:53 +0000

Nikki – You have a point – However, think of it from eBay’s perspective, how did they know you were the original photographer if there was no watermark? It’s your word against that bad seller. So, yes I agree if you are concerned about another seller borrowing photos â€“ do watermark them. I watermark any I take and post and then hope other sellers will use them so I can get some advertising and marketing out of it.
I know everyone feels very close to their photos, but if using one photo to represent a bread maker is fraudulent – why are there stock photos that manufactures and advertisers use to represent products?
I apologize for my remarks. I feel very protective about eBay because I make my living selling online. I get really tired of the eBay bashing that goes on all over the Internet. Your point is a very valid one â€“ bottom line, if you are using & posting photos anywhere on the Internet be sure and watermark them if you donâ€™t want your hard work to be used by someone else.
Cindy
http://www.clovercityphoto.com

By: Nikki

Nikki — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:15:39 +0000

CLS, sorry but I have to rebut your comments. First of all, to post photos which claim to be of the item one is selling is fraudulent (misrepresentation and false advertising). Furthermore, my post never blamed ebay for misuse of the photos — it merely said this was my experience in posting my photos on ebay and was meant as a cautionary tale to others who might post their photos on ebay, so please don’t flame me with accusations of something I never said. Lastly, I contacted the seller (the first one who stole my photos) and asked that they remove my photos from their ad and they refused. I then contacted eBay and asked for their intervention and ebay said, basically, that they would do nothing more than what I did, i.e., to contact the other seller and ask that they stop using my photos and claiming the photos were of the item THEY were selling, which did nothing to remedy the problem or to fairly warn potential bidders that the items pictured in this seller’s auction were not that of the actual item up for bid. So, in this respect, I think I am wholly justified to fault ebay for not taking stronger action in the matter, even thought that is not at all what I said in my original post.

By: Rosh

Rosh — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:04:05 +0000

Do not use your on camera flash. That is the worst lighting in the world. It will make your products look unflattering. Yes, absolutely create or use a lighting tent or at least bounce light of white card.

Also good comments on using a macro lens. I use a 100mm Macro from canon. I love it.

Rosh
http://www.newmediaphotographer.com

By: rdobes

rdobes — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:42:20 +0000

@Dusty
the problem is white balance. The light in your lightbox is confusing the camera and the result is white balance is off.
I take pictures of jewelry for my client using lightbox and it took me a while to get it right. I used to edit the white balance in lightroom but over time I was able to tweak the camera setting to a point where I am getting perfect white balance on every picture.
Basically you want to shoot full manual.
The setting that works for me and my lightbox best is AROUND iso160, f11, 1/80 (of course the settings depend on your lightbox).
The most important thing is using custom white balance.
Custom white balance makes all the difference.

By: Photography Forums

Photography Forums — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:57:17 +0000

Some useful tips there – I always cringe when I see badly taken photos on ebay… worst of all when it’s a reflective object and you get either a big white flash or a reflection of the photographer.