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Author: Laura_Brito, Contributing Editor
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| PICTURES FOR AUCTION DESCRIPTIONS
Not only is a good title important, but good images are a necessity. Images need to be clear (see the six above). Auctions with very hazy pictures or too small an image without detail may be passed over by the bidder. Customers like to know what they buying. I cannot stress enough the importance of your images. I suggest more than one image and more than one angle. For example, I sell glass beads on Ebay daily. I usually include at least 3 pictures of the beads and sometimes 6 in my auction. Why? Because, first of all, I want my customer to have no surprises other than that the beads are better than pictured. Plus, I don't want my customer to tell me, these are not what I expected; I am not happy with them; I want to return them. A returned item is costly for me because I give a refund, lose my listing and final value fees, and have to relist the item. If I ask Ebay for my fees back, it puts a black mark on my customer and I don't want to alienate a customer by doing this. If the customer receives a product that doesn't look like the picture, then it is my fault and I look bad. Would you purchase from me again? Doubtful! The six pictures above are good examples. These are of a bracelet that I made. Notice that I show 6 different angles of the bracelet and will use all six pictures in my auction. The picture below (left) is a collage picture (several views are included in one image), but more time may be involved with the editing. I use Photoshop to edit my pictures but there are many good programs available. Photoshop offers several options that I prefer, like auto-color (which will fix the colors to be more realistic), or auto-contrast (which will make the picture have more or less contrast), or equalize (which will often make a picture much more natural and sometimes it will make a picture look alien). You can always go back to the original and start over with editing. The picture on the right (below) is an example of an image that is fuzzy and not clear. If the bead sells using this image, I might have to give a refund when the customer gets the bead because they will think it is not the the item they bid on. I often see auctions with only one image and of very poor quality. It makes me sad because, with a little help, they could improve their images and increase their income. Your camera is important; it needs to have a Macro feature if you are photographing small items. Mine is a Sony Mavica with Macro and Program options. I also put a cross hair in the middle of the Camera's Screen that allows the camera to focus specifically on the small item I am photographing. With some practice, you can become proficient at taking your own photos. With the advent of digital photography, it has become even easier to obtain high quality, well focused, images for uploading to the internet. Don't limit your sales by using poor images! I like to use an Ott Light for my lighting when photographing items. It is equivalant to natural sunlight. There are other options like photographer lights but the Ott Light is probably the most economical way to properly light an item. If your item is larger, a scupture or painting, I have found that by placing the item outdoors under direct sunlight in the afternoon usually produces the best picture. It will depend on your camera, but I generally stand only as far away as I am required to fill the led screen or lens. I do not use zoom, but I do take 6 to 8 shots at different angles and pick the best shot from these. |
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 | If you are selling a 2 dimensional item you have other problems. It is really hard to convey what a painting looks like in a picture of a picture. I have seen many artists who will take a picture that is straight on and another of the picture on the wall at an angle, so you get the idea as to what it will look like hanging.
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| If you are not really good with computers, you should take a class to learn more about them. Ebay and other auction venues are online businesses and you will find that much of your time is involved with your computer. I do not use Ebay's iPix service to host my pictures, nor do I use some of the other services that allow you to do this (Auctionwatch, Activa). Why? Because they charge you a per image fee after your first image! Instead I have purchased my own web presence on the internet. You can purchase space for as little as $6.95 per month. (WetCanvas hosts web space for artists to use! with a ton of features you will not find anywhere else). With a personal website, you can post your own pictures and have a personal URL (Uniform Resource Locators). For example: Beadful Things which is my own website. Instead of paying Ebay fees for image hosting, I save this money and pay for my website space, email addresses, and personal image hosting. You can use an ftp program to upload your pictures to your website, but if you sell a lot of items, Ebay's Seller Assistant Pro is available for managing auctions and pictures (which I will go into later).
If you want to get real fancy you can make your pictures rotate from one view to another! Ipix charges $1.00 to do this for you automatically. When hosting your own images, you can put your pictures into your auctions the size you want them to be. If you want your customer to view a larger image of your item, Ipix charges $1.00 for this option. Again this can add up fast, so save your money by learning a few important computer skills. Ipix will host the first picture for free. This is a good option because it provides you with a picture in your title bar. When a person clicks on your auction listing the first thing they see is a small picture of the item that grabs their attention before they click the back button. The Seller Merchandising system (I will discuss this in a later section) will automatically include the Title Bar Picture if you haven't already selected a Gallery Image. |
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