Taking good pictures of your eBay products - 30 Mar (4-5 PM)

sapana@ebay.com
eBay Employee
eBay Employee
Hi,

A good photograph is essential for selling on eBay. This workshop will concentrate on sharing tips on taking good pictures of your eBay products. if you have any tips on the same, feel free to share them on this thread.

Host: eBay Staff
Date: Thursday, 30th March 2005
Time: 4.00 pm to 5.00 pm (IST)


Hope to see you there!!

Regards,
Sapana
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Taking good pictures of your eBay products - 30 Mar (4-5 PM)

sapana@ebay.com
eBay Employee
eBay Employee
Hi All,

welcome to today's Workshop!

Today we have Preeti from Seller marketing team to help you understand tricks on taking better pictures.

She will be posting the content related to the tool shortly. This will be followed by answering your questions.

Warm Regards,
Sapana
Message 11 of 26
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Taking good pictures of your eBay products - 30 Mar (4-5 PM)

ristcomputers
Community Member
Hi,

Please suggest a technique to get take good photographs of jewellery and stones.
Message 12 of 26
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Taking good pictures of your eBay products - 30 Mar (4-5 PM)

preetim@ebay.com
Community Member
Hello Everybody

Good Evening and welcome to todays workshop on how to take good pictures for your eBay Products.

Over the next one hour i will share with you'll tips and ways to take good photographs and answer your questions to my level best.

I will first start of with the tips and suggestions that I have and then spend sometime in responding to all your questions.

I would like to make this as interative, so please feel free to post your questions right here.
Regards,
Preeti

Regards,
Preeti
Message 13 of 26
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Taking good pictures of your eBay products - 30 Mar (4-5 PM)

preetim@ebay.com
Community Member
Pictures Sell! We all know that a photograph plays an important role in attracting a buyers attention and helping him make a decision to buy a product.

Let me start with how to add a photograph to your eBay listing?
There are two ways to add a photograph to your listing:

* Use a Regular Film camera
- Click a photograph of the product.
- Get the roll developed.
- Once you have the photograph use a scanner to scan the image and save it in a digitized format.

* If you have a digital camera
Click a photograph of your item and transfer it to your computer with a USB cord you would have received withthe camera.

Format to save the photograph
In order to upload your listing to eBay you should have the photograph saved in JPG or GIF format.

Steps to save a picture in the above two formats:
- While saving the photograph right click on the image
- Click on Save Picture As
- Select the destination on your hard drive for saving the image
- Enter a file name for the picture
- Select the type as .jpg or .gif
- Click on the save button.

If you do not see any options in the Save type dropdown just add a .jpg or a .gif as an extention to the item title.
Regards,
Preeti

Regards,
Preeti
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Taking good pictures of your eBay products - 30 Mar (4-5 PM)

preetim@ebay.com
Community Member
Editing an image

Now that you have the photographs saved onto your computer spend sometime to edit the pictures so you show your buyer only what you want him to see.

You can use the basic Photo editor or Paint that you get with Miscrosoft paint to edit your photographs. eBay's Enhanced Picture Services also enable you to edit your photographs.

You can take the following action to edit your pictures and make them more appealing to your buyers
- Rotate the image so they are right side up,
- Crop the image to cut the extra background so buyers can focus on your item
- If they are too dark to see, you can brighten them up as well.
Regards,
Preeti

Regards,
Preeti
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Taking good pictures of your eBay products - 30 Mar (4-5 PM)

preetim@ebay.com
Community Member
Thats how you can edit photographs and add them to your listing.

Here are some tips you should keep in mind to take clear photographs

Hold Your Camera Steady

Camera movement is the most common reason for blurry photographs. While taking your photographs make sure to stand firmly and hold your camera steadily so that you don’t shake the camera while pressing the “Click” button. If required lean against a wall.

You may also consider using a tripod to make sure the camera is steady.

Use the Right Lighting

Natural but diffused light is great for taking photographs. Avoid direct sunlight on your photographs.

If you are taking pictures with sunlight or artificial lighting, place a piece of sheer fabric, butter paper or a plastic shower curtain liner between the light and the product. This helps to diffuse the light.

While taking photographs also ensure to place the product to the right of the light. Do not allow the light to directly fall on the image as if the light directly falls on the product chances are it will bounce back on the camera and the product image will not be clear.

Use a Background

When I look at photos on eBay, I often see people using white bed sheets as backgrounds — probably because everyone has at least one set of bed linens around the house. It is best to place a white chart paper that is available in most stationary shops behind your item.

Do not place the item too close to the White background as it causes a shadow of the item in the photograph.

Chart papers are also available in a variety of colors. You can try different colour backgrounds for different items.

For light colour products and Jewellery a dark colour background causes a contrast and enhances the visual appeal of the product.

While taking pictures of reflective objects use an indirect source of light such as a window covered with a sheer paper or a sheer cloth so that it diffuses the natural light. Do not use the flash on your camera. You can use a small bulb or light covered with a sheer paper if you do not have natural light available.

Picture Size

Since most people are on a dial up connection it is best to have small photographs that will load easily. An ideal picture size would be

550 x 550 pixels and it should be between 50 & 75 KB. It is a better idea to take several small photos that show several sides of an item than one large shot.

Adding up to 3 photographs is absolutely FREE. If you are subscribed to Picture Manager you can add up to 12 pictures absolutely FREE.

To check the size of the photograph
Place your cursor on your picture then right click on your computer mouse and go to properties. You will see the size or pixels depending on the program and version you use.
Regards,
Preeti

Regards,
Preeti
Message 16 of 26
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Taking good pictures of your eBay products - 30 Mar (4-5 PM)

preetim@ebay.com
Community Member
Those were some tips on taking good photographs for your product.

If you are selling a lot of products regularly on the site, you may consider using an Online Picture Hosting service. eBay's tool - Picture Manager is easy to use for hosting pictures and also offers other benefits.

Benefits of using Picture Manager- Save images online.
- Faster loading time
- Enhanced editing services to edit pictures
- Add up to 12 pictures to your listings absolutely FREE
- Add a watermark to your pictures

You can subscribe to Picture Manager from
>> My eBay >> My Account >> Subscriptions Section.

We also offer a 30 day FREE Subscription period with Picture Manager.
Regards,
Preeti

Regards,
Preeti
Message 17 of 26
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Taking good pictures of your eBay products - 30 Mar (4-5 PM)

indianexpo
Community Member
i would love to get the answer Halwawala has asked.... We are fed up trying clicking Gems & diamonds...& fine jewelry...
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Taking good pictures of your eBay products - 30 Mar (4-5 PM)

indianexpo
Community Member
We need help for clicking fine jewelry and gems using digi-cam.. any help plz..
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Taking good pictures of your eBay products - 30 Mar (4-5 PM)

preetim@ebay.com
Community Member
Dear indianexpo, ristcomputers and halwawala_in1

This is with regards to your questions on how to take good pictures for jewellery and stones.

Jewellery is one of the most difficult to photograph. Here are some tips:

- Avoid the flash light of the camera
- Try using natural light. In case if it is a sunny day use a sheer paper on the window to avoid sunrays from directly falling on the item
- In case of use of artificial light place the image on the side and not directly below the product
- Use a dark background to enhance the visual appeal
Regards,
Preeti

Regards,
Preeti
Message 20 of 26
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Type a product name