How To Make Your Product Photos Look Better On eBay
By Rich Menga on Aug 18, 2009 in How Do I | comments(5)
I very recently posted an auction for my old Dell Inspiron 6000 (take a look if you like). She’s obviously old and has seen better days, but hopefully somebody will find it useful as a parts laptop.
The challenge here was to make an older laptop look half-way decent in an eBay listing photo. How to do it? Here’s how:
Yes, I know the laptop is old and you can clearly see the paint rubbed off the palm rest from years of use (this is common to the older Inspiron series), but the blue backdrop makes the overall presentation look much more appealing.
Do I have some ritzy photo studio to make a product photo look good?
Hardly:
It’s a blue piece of fabric purchased from Wal-Mart and tacked up on the wall. I smoothed out the fabric in the area where the laptop is.
The camera I used? A cheap point-and-shoot. Nothing fancy.
Here’s some tips on using a proper backdrop and other things you can do to make what you sell more attractive in a photo:
1. Blue, black or white backdrops only
Even the cheapest of digital cameras "like" the color blue. Black is good also, but sometimes may not serve well if what you’re showing is also black. White works well as long as it’s actual fabric and not a towel from the bathroom (whenever I see that I laugh because it’s so obvious).
Red is bad. Psychologically this says, "WARNING!" Not good when you’re trying to sell something.
Green is bad because it tends to "fuzz" when you take the shot. It doesn’t matter how good your digital camera is because on upload to eBay or like service your photo will be downsized and compressed, resulting in a seriously crappy look (you will actually see the JPEG artifacts in some instances.. very bad.)
Patterns are also bad, because the first thing potential buyers will pay attention to is the pattern and not the product.
2. Angle it
For laptops or anything with a screen on it, shooting on an angle is always better. It literally eliminates the big white spot a camera flash creates due to reflection.
A very common mistake is that people will shoot products with screens on them from dead center. This makes the product look horrible. If you angle it, it gets rid of the aforementioned flash and you can actually show the screen turned on and in use.
You will notice that for any – and I mean any – dead-center shots of something with a screen in use, the screen will always look dim even at the brightest setting. But when you angle it, it looks proper.
3. Show what it comes with
You’ll notice in my photo that the XP Pro operating system recovery disc and the power brick is clearly seen. This lets any potential buyer know that yes, it comes with those items included. Both items are a big deal to anybody who purchases a laptop new or used.
Per my photo above, showing the power brick not plugged in while the laptop is turned on proves the battery still works.
4. Show it turned on
Many people also make the mistake of showing an electronic device not turned on in a listing. The immediate thought (at least for me) when I see that is, "Oh. I guess it doesn’t work." This is obviously not the impression you want to give. You want to show that yes, whatever you’re selling does work. So show it.
5. Don’t try to hide the flaws
In my example, the rubbed-off paint on the palm rest is a huge eyesore. But there was nothing I could do about that, so I left it as-is and in my description noted it. She’s an older laptop, anybody that looks at it will also know it’s older, and she’s nowhere near mint condition. Any attempt by me trying to convince a potential buyer otherwise would be a fool’s errand. Being honest with your product photos goes a long way with buyers because it establishes confidence, i.e. the buyer knows up front what he or she is getting with no guesswork.
Did you also know that your thumbnail will also look much better shooting product photos like this?
The blue really separates this from the other listings you would see for like products, and is done so in a way that’s not garish/tacky.
Will any of my tips above guarantee the sale of anything? No, because nothing is guaranteed no matter how good you make it look. But the likelihood of people actually looking at what you post does increase, and this may give you a better chance of selling whatever it is you have.
What photo methods do you use (if any) for the stuff you sell online?
Are there any "tricks" you use that have proven to be successful? Let us know in the comments.
Whenever you take a photo with a digital camera the resulting JPEG file is obviously quite large both in dimensions and file size.
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