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I have had an eBay account for years but I never really tried to sell Much, just buy. After listening to the podcast I am so thrilled and motivated to get my eBay selling started! I want to figure out how to take super high quality photos that’s budget friendly. What is everything I need? Basically what is the best budget friendly way to maximize photo quality and what do I need? I’m fine with spending a few hundred bucks. What is every single item I should buy? Thanks guys!
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my advice: get started right away with $0 by just taking photos with your phone in indirect natural light (that’s what I’ve been doing for years). Your photos don’t have to be spectacular to sell stuff.
I’m sure other people with post links to the lighting setups that they’ve purchased and use.
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This is the answer. Any cell phone that’s less than three years old will take awesome photos in natural light. We’ve been selling full-time for a decade and this is till our set up.
Lights and fancier set ups are needed for people who’s workspace are dark basements or they can only take photos at night.
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I use an app on my phone called “DSLR CAMERA” which does a very nice job for a couple dollars.
What I like best besides being able to manually adjust all the pre shot settings is it instantly allows me to simply add a filter to the photo to brighten it up before I save.
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I used to use an Olympus Pen with a couple of studio flashes. The Pen started playing up, so I traded in some dvds for store credit at CEX, and bought a small Olympus something-or-other 14 megapixel camera for £28. I use a phone charger to charge the battery via usb. Quality is good enough that I can just use the built-in flash. A cheap tripod is useful- you could maybe use a tripod with a ‘phone as a steady.
Thing to watch out for is that (in my experience) the only way to get photos off an Android ‘phone onto a Mac is to email them.
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I’ve been a professional photographer and I agree with the above replies. All you need FOR EBAY is a smart phone, good lighting (natural light works!), and a white background. I use poster board, one sheet on a table and tri-fold as the background. Find a good location in your house and a good time of day and that’s all you need. Toss in a ruler to show size; BUT be careful because sometimes the wide smart phone lens will distort the measurements up to 1/8 of an inch. So if’s it something with a critical size (like a panel mount test meter) be sure to take care not to distort the size. Use all 12 photos, front back side top bottom etc.
Don’t go crazy buying camera and lights unless you have a special need.
White poster board is awesome and I suggest the better boards at Staples / Office Max as opposed to the Dollar Stores. They all get dented and dirt quickly so buy extra and try to keep them clean. -
This is all great advice… unless you live in a house with tiny windows so you need to turn on the lights in the middle of a Texas summer! 😀
While I agree with all of the above, for me, with my mausoleum lighting, my best investment ever and one that I wish I had done waaaaay back in the beginning, was my lightbox. I bought this one because it was on sale, but now that I have it, I wish I’d bought the Amazon one because of the black edging on the ESDDI. The silvery sides of the ESDDI are problematic too, often creating a reflection or awkward coloring. I much prefer the all white interior of the Amazon version.
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Thanks for all the great info guys. That’s great my phone will do the job! So is just white poster board the best backround for items? Also what should I use to edit my photos and what is the goal for editing? Sorry if these are dumb questions. Another thing, I have an iPad and a galaxy note 9. Can I take pictures with my iPad and list my item using my iPad? Does a laptop make it easier? How long should I save the photos on my iPad? On average how many photos should I have on listings?
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No dumb questions, but strive to not make any of this complicated. You can just take photos on your iPad/iPhone directly in the eBay app. Photos are automatically uploaded and attach to the listing.
You shouldn’t have to edit photos if your lighting is decent, and you correctly crop them in the camera. If you take a photo that is bad, just delete in the app and take another photo.
Take an hour today to post a couple items online. This process will answer most of your questions. Learn by doing.
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Oh – edit to the above! There are a whole host of light boxes on the interwebz. I chose this one specifically because it came with integrated lighting. Currently, having too much stuff and too little space, this works for me, even though I need to edit my lighting EVERY time. However, if I had more space for a better set up, I think I’d go for the boxes with the diffuser sides that you set up lights around. The integrated lighting always creates light reflection, the diffuser doesn’t work well. I haven’t worked with the other kind, so can’t tell which is actually better. If I ever get around to buying another set up, I’ll post a comparison.
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I use a white towel on a t.v. tray to photograph my smaller items. I clip the towel up to a shelf or else fling it over something large behind it. Works better than a sheet because no wrinkles to contend with. For larger items I photograph against one of my light beige walls in my house. Make sure you don’t have a bunch of junk in the background and your photos will already look better than many of the listings out there. Smart phones work great. I use an Iphone and I don’t bother fiddling with any of the settings. You may have to hold the camera in position for a few seconds as the phone automatically adjusts for lighting. I create an ebay listing on my laptop and then click “save for later”. Then I open up that listing in the ebay app on my iphone & add the photos directly from my phone and list the item from there. It’s simple. Don’t worry about spending money on a lot of equipment until you’ve sold for awhile and learn what works and doesn’t work for you and your space.
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I just use a white piece of plasticy billboard material and a cheap samsung camera. It hangs so part of it is vertical and the rest lies under the item. Also, i am careful what time of day I take pictures so that I do not get any harsh light. I used to use a white towel, but the camera kept trying to focus on the towel material instead of the item on the close up shots.
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To answer your follow up questions
I do not edit my photos at all
I do 12 photos on most items, somethings I do 8-10
For me I use white poster board, I have used a white blanket before too.
Like Jay said – learn by doing
And I use Julie B’s method, I do a draft on my phone then finish it up on my computer – and with dual monitors I do price research on one screen and compete the listing on the other monitor -
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I use a fuzzy white blanket draped over the couch. Use natural light at first until you are ready to upgrade and use your smart phone. Take the pics in square mode all straight up and down to avoid rotating later. Dont edit anything.
I start the draft in the ebay app on my phone, upload pics to the draft, and then head over to the PC to finish the drafts.
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