How to Add Photographs to Your eBay Auction
By Stephen Bucaro
The secret to good sales results on eBay is provide complete information about
the item you are selling. A photograph can provide more details than any amount
of text. A photograph gives buyers the confidence to make a bid.
Adding a photograph to your listing requires the following steps.
1. Take a good photograph
2. Tweak the photograph
3. Place the image file on the Web
4. Add the picture to your listing
Start with a Good Photograph
Many eBay sellers think a quick and dirty snapshot is good enough, after all, they
only need the photo for the length of their auction. The fact is, a good photograph
will result in higher bids. It's well worth the effort to create a quality photograph.
A good photograph does NOT have any of the following faults.
 Glare on the object or in the background
Fuzzy out of focus
Object too small in the photo
Distracting background
Glare is caused by using flash, or by placing the object in bright sunlight. You can
usually get good results by photographing the object outdoors in the shade or on a cloudy day.
You can photograph an object in natural light if you wait until sunlight shines
into a room, and then place the object at the opposite end of the room to be photographed.
Many experienced eBay sellers actually build a set especially for photographing
the items they sell. This usually consists of a table against a wall, or with a
back board, covered with a background material such as paper or fabric. Use a
solid-color, non-glossy background material that does not reflect light.
If you don't have the inclination to build a photography set, you can lay your
background material on the floor. Place the object on the background material,
laying the object on its side if necessary, and take the photo from above. You
may need to stand on a stool or ladder to get the required distance from the object.
Getting Your Photograph Into Your Computer
To convert a photograph into a digital image for the web requires the use of a scanner.
Because you only need a scanning resolution of 74 dpi (dots per inch) for eBay photographs,
you don't need a high-end scanner. A suitable scanner costs less than $100.00.
Proper scanning requires the following steps:
1. Make sure the scanner's glass surface is free of dust and smudges.
2. Position the photograph squarely on the bed of the scanner. Use the right-angle corner
of a sheet of paper as an alignment aid. Don't let the photo move as you lower the scanner's cover.
3. Do a pre-scan to display the position of the object on the scanner bed. The scanner
software should have a function that lets you use the mouse to draw a box around the area you want to scan.
4. Set the scanner's resolution to the desired dpi. A resolution of 74 dpi is usually good.
5. Perform the initial scan.
6. A scanner usually comes with software that lets you view the resulting image. If the
result is not satisfactory, adjust the resolution or size of the selection box, and scan again.
7. When you have created the desired scan, save it to your hard disk in the file format
that uses the "jpg" extension.
The final scan does not have to be perfect. Your scanner probably came with image
processing software that lets you resize, crop, and perform other functions on the image.
Digital Cameras
Today digital cameras outsell old-fashioned film cameras. Digital cameras will
never be able to produce the high quality results that film cameras can. Digital
cameras are specified by the number of pixels of its light sensor. A pixel is
the digital data for a colored dot of which the image is composed. Modern digital
cameras come with mega-pixel specifications (mega being one million).
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