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One of the areas I’m really struggling with is photographs. My camera died and I’ve been battling with my older ones, so I started taking photos on my Android phone in the eBay app. It seems to go a lot faster and, now that eBay has added photo editing, seems to work fairly well.
However, I’ve heard that iPhones are better for photos in the app. As my husband now needs a smartphone for work, I’ve been thinking I’d buy an old iPhone and give him my Android.
Any opinions from the Trash Elves as to the best iPhone model for photos? I vaguely remember some commentary on the iPhone 4, but all feedback would be welcome.
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I wouldn’t recommend the iPhone 4 camera. That’s the phone I had until very recently, and it was very hit or miss in terms of photo quality for selling clothing on eBay so I mostly used a separate camera. I now have a 6s and the photos are much better so that’s what i use for eBay.
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Jay – my husband built me a lighting set up using two fluorescent lights per this post
http://ebay.to/2np3X5Fbut the lighting still comes out awful on my photos. I’ve obviously got to figure this out and fast, because it’s taking me a very long time to get my listings done as I piddle about with getting photos that are halfway reasonable. I’d settle for halfway decent, if I could make that work! I’m seriously considering doing my photos at midnight, so that I can see if it would work better having the surrounds entirely dark!
Thanks, Sonia. It’s the personal experience that really helps!
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Amantino, I have that lighting setup and it works great for me, day or night. I posted about it in the photography thread a few months ago.
Did you get 5000K bulbs? Also, did you set your camera to “daylight” mode?
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Hi Terri. Thanks so much for directing me there, I’m thrilled to see someone else has the same set up. And it’s working great for you, judging from your photos! Yes, it is the 5000K fluorescent bulb in each light. It’s my dang blasted &*^#&&^*Y$&%^& camera that’s a problem! When I started I had my old Sony H1 that I bought in 2005 and it was wonderful. However, it died on me mid-photo (literally!) and I switched to a cheap Nokia that I picked up in Singapore. It kinda works some days. Then my MIL sent me an Olympus SZ-14 that I’ve grown to loathe with a passion! It has no manual white balance, even Google can’t help me with the stupid thing. eBay actually dinged me on one of my listings because, after several days and multiple attempts, I couldn’t get a black object to come out black, and so compromised by stressing all over the listing that it was “black, not blue” to which eBay advised me I was keyword spamming. Sigh… That’s when I changed to using my phone and the eBay app.
I’ll try the Nokia again and see if it has a daylight or manual white balance and see if that works. I’ve lined up 15 drafts for tomorrow, so I’m praying for a good photography day.
Thanks for the advice. And for the peace of mind that my lighting set up isn’t at fault!
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You’re welcome.
Just asked about the setting because before I had a camera with a manual adjustment, I had mine set to fluorescent. Made sense to me since I was using fluorescent bulbs but then someone corrected me. I’ve also read threads where people didn’t realize that their flash needed to be turned off, but I’ll assume you know that.
Since the camera I’ve had for the past few years (a Samsung that only cost about $50) has a manual white balance, I set that using my gray background with the lights turned on and I’m good to go for the most part. I do have to adjust the exposure lighter or darker as needed based on the color of the item and whether I’m taking photos far away or close up.
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Hey Terri,
Here’s an example of why I’m frustrated. This is a photo taken using the light set up
http://imgur.com/3CLsCk2And here’s one outside on a piece of white cardboard on the ground using just sunlight
http://imgur.com/7peLPYASame shirt, same phone in the same ebay app. Only difference is the location and the time it took to move it from one location to another.
It’s driving me CRAZY!
Yesterday I wasted half a morning trying all different settings on my little Nokia, but it was no dice, I just couldn’t get it to take color correctly. The phone ended up with better colors, taking photos of men’s ties.
Today, I have a blue shirt coming up gray. Gaaaaaaaaah!
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Amatino,
I have the same types of color issues and I agree that they are really frustrating. I especially purchased a standalone camera with color correction settings to deal with this issue, but it didn’t really help. I have never bothered with lights and only use natural light (I have a room with skylights, and when the sun isn’t directly shining into them, the light in there is good). My new iPhone 6s has been a noticeable improvement in this area over the iPhone 4 and the standalone camera. But sometimes I just have to try out a couple of different locations and backgrounds in order to get the color at least approximately right. But sometimes I just give up and say in the description (as I did last night) something like: “Actual color of the pants is a darker blue than what you see in the photos”.
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Thanks, Sonia. Yes, I’ve done the color advisement route. Sometimes I’ll note that a particular photo is the most accurate color. But on days like today when a very attractive blue is coming out prison gray, I’m not quite so forgiving! LOL.
The reason why it’s bugging me so much is because I’ve identified photographs as my biggest hurdle in listing faster. I seem to be getting good at research and creating the specs on my listings, but the photos take forever! This week I was averaging 13 minutes to get a tie done, and 23 minutes for a shirt. That’s way too slow if I’m wanting to do 20-30 listings per day.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for the feedback and help. I really do appreciate it!
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So, the color in the second photo (dark navy blue) is accurate?
Looks like your first photo is way overexposed. Like I said, I have to adjust the light/dark (called EV – Exposure Value, on my camera) depending on how close I am and the color of the item.
Sorry you’re having so much trouble. I know how frustrating it is, especially when you spent the time/money to get a light setup.
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I had trouble with blues on my iphone 5s. The combination of artificial light, the camera sensor, and the color blue just generally can cause issues for almost any camera.
I had very good luck with the walmart brand daylight temp 60W LED light bulbs which are pretty cheap now. I have a ceiling fixture with 5 of those bulbs in it and I did not have a problem with blue. At work I had major issues with blue due to the fluorescent light fixtures.
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I have an old iPhone 5 and it is fine for most pictures, but there is still some issues with true colors. Although, aren’t monitors/phones different on showing colors, too, so even if you have an accurate picture, won’t the buyer’s monitor/phone make a difference?
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It occurred to me in the wee hours of the morning that I should just build myself a giant lightbox! A big, glass sided shed that is totally open to the sun, but enclosed so that my stuff doesn’t get blown away by our constant winds or rained on. LOL!
Thanks for all your help, folks. I really appreciate it.
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