On another forum I’m involved with, someone’s asked a great question: I want to sell products on eBay, but I want to include photographs with my items. How do I do that? What kind of camera do I need, and what settings should I use?
The first step is to buy a digital camera. You can use a film camera, get the prints developed and then scan them in, but you can now buy an entry-level digital camera for the same price as a low-end scanner, and it’s a lot easier to use!
A few example cameras that have a good reputation, from Amazon: A very inexpensive camera – on sale currently – is the Digital Concepts VGA Camera (currently $49), and if you want to get a known brand, as I’d recommend, then you can’t go wrong with the Fujifilm FinePix 1400 (about $70), the Kodak DC215 (about $60), or the slightly more expensive
Epson PhotoPC 750Z (about $100).
Getting good results from a digital camera isn’t trivial, however, particularly if you’re trying to take a picture of a book, statue, CD cover or item of clothing. That’s where it’s nice to be able to take fifty pictures, download them all to your computer, and pick the best one of the lot. Unlike film photography, this won’t cost you a nickel. Just time…
A general tip for taking good product shots is to have lots of light. If you’re in a room with ceiling lights, turn ’em all on. If you have floor lamps, move them over and point them directly on the item. In addition, use a neutral color blanket or sheet as a background for the item: you don’t want to distract potential buyers with your household clutter. Then hold your camera very, very steady (consider having it on a chair or, ideally, a tripod) and slowly click the button to take the shot. If your shots are blurry, try moving back a foot or so and taking another photograph.
Once you’ve taken a product photograph you like (and don’t be discouraged if it seems hard. There are professional photographers who specialize in product and catalog photography and it’s quite an art!) then crop it tightly so that the photograph is about the product and as little else as possible. If you’re using a blanket as a background, for example, it should only be visible on the edges of the photograph. Bidders will appreciate a product photo that reveals a lot of detail about the product and nothing else.
Finally, within your photo editor (Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, Graphic Converter, iPhoto, whatever), make sure that the final image resolution is 75dpi, not 300dpi, then resize the image down to a maximum width of 400 pixels and a maximum height of 300 pixels: and do it with “keep image proportions” enabled so that you don’t distort the photo. Save it as a JPEG, not a GIF, since it will keep the nuances of color much better.
Great. Now you have a photo ready to upload to eBay with your next auction! When you’re entering the auction information, you’ll get to a step where it offers you the chance to add a photograph, and that’s what you want to do. Click on “upload photo” and pick your saved image, then it’ll automatically be sent to the eBay servers along with your other auction information, and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a true Powerseller!
When I add photographs to my eBay auctions, I use a rather more expensive (about $2000) camera setup, a Nikon D100 digital with studio lighting and similar gear. You can see some of my photographic work at Colorado Portraits.
HOW DO YOU GET THE PICTURES FROM THE CAMERA TO EBAY?????
Can already take good pics just don’t know what steps to take to get them to ebay I have a Canon Powershot ELPH 300HS. I loaned it to a friend and it was returned without any instructions. Any help you can give me would be appreciated. Thanks.
Hi M. Stillmann RN. You need to plug the camera into your computer, then download the photos onto your system from the Canon. Edit / trim them as needed (they’re usually too big to just upload directly to eBay) then when you’re composing a listing on eBay there’s an area that lets you select photos to upload. Done!
Hi Dave
Can you help.When l sell items l would love to use the mouse click on facility to zoom in
Do you know how to do this. I would really appreciate your help
What annoys me the most is that ebay charges you money for every picture… I recently discovered that you can just insert html code and link to images outside of ebay. It’s free and very easy to set up. Check out:
http://www.pixboat.com or
http://www.photobucket.com
We really need an Ebay alternative…
Cheers
Jack
I wished someone would come up with another auction site other than EBAY…yes, of course Ebay charges for every picture. AND, when your item sells, they take part of that money also…then….you use Pay Pal…again, THEY take part of your money…then you have to deal with the (W#^& so called postal service, in our area, they are CONSTANTLY mis delivering the mail. A lot of Seniors where we live, last week, heart medication was delivered to the wrong address..created a lot of problems. A lot of sellers have dropped off using EBay, it is not worth the hassle.
You are my only hope at this time…I have done everything live chat guy told me to do…the forums have no answers…when Ebay updated their picture service in Nov of 2010, tons of people are having problems uploading their pic to their listings. Per the chat guy this morning…I went to google chrome (did not work), I cleared all history, all cache and everything (nothing) I had no problems listing with current computer in October of 2010. I have been trying for days now. When you hit the upload button, maybe 50% of pics load and the others say(upload failed) and Ebay is no help. I thought maybe you might have already addressed this with some others…Im hoping…any help will be appreciated. Thank you and have a great day and Happy New Year.
I have been trying to download my pictures with my listings and it shows they are 100% loaded but don’t appear on my listings, should I download some kind of special tool for pictures and if so what are they? Please help me, I am trying to get enough money to go back home for a visit this summer and I have alot of items to sell.
Thank You for taking the time to read this.
Debbie
i was wondering if you could help me i’m trying to sell stuff on ebay but i’m unable to add my photo’s, when i click on add pics the page freezes, i also at times have the same problem’s when trying to view pics on certain sites also so when trying to add pics on other sites. i have contacted ebay the only advise they gave was to delete cookies etc but this didn’t work. i was wondering if there are certain settings on my computer that would prevent me from viewing or adding photo’s online.
I WANT TO TAKE PICTURES OF MY MANUFACTURED CLOTHING TO BUILD MY WEB SITE. SOMEONE TOLD ME NOT TO GET ANYTHING MORE THAN A 4MP, IS THAT TRUE… ALSO, COULD YOU PROVIDE ME WTIH ANY INFORMATION ABOUT TAKING PICTURES OF CLOTHING I.E.DIFFERENT SIZE LENS IF NEEDED AND SO FORTH.
REGARDS,
TONY