When we shop in brick-and-mortar stores, we always want to examine items carefully before purchasing them. We like to pick them up, touch them, check them out at every angle to ensure that we know exactly on what we’re spending our money — and since this isn’t really possible in an online sale, it’s crucial to provide a clear, honest and detailed visual representation of your product.

This means including a series of photos with your auction — but they can’t just be any old photo. Photos depicting your object from strange, concealing angles, in bad light or in a less-than-attractive setting all detract from your item’s saleability and make it less likely that a shopper will feel comfortable purchasing it.

Firstly, the photo(s) you include need to be of a high-enough resolution to look good on-screen. Resolution basically refers to the quality of a digital image. You definitely don’t need to own a top-of-the-line digital camera to take a photo that will look good on-screen. Speak to someone at a multimedia store about what you’ll be using the camera for, and hopefully he or she will direct you to a camera that’s reasonably-priced, suits your needs and doesn’t include a lot of bells and whistles that you will never use.

Another option is to use a regular non-digital 35mm camera to take photos of your item, and then scan them in after developing them. This is a much lengthier process and honestly, I don’t recommend it; you’ll probably need software to adjust the image once it’s been scanned into digital format and that can be a pain.

When shooting your item, think about factors that you want to play up. Does it feature bright, intricately-detailed fabric? Does it have gadgets that make it really practical? Does it include add-ons that make it a really great deal? These are all things that you want to represent clearly in the photo(s) you will include with the auction. If it’s something like a stroller or baby carrier, you’ll definitely want to include a photo of the item in action. If it’s a diaper bag, make sure to include photos of the interior as well as the exterior — pockets are important!

Getting the light just right can be difficult, and sometimes flashes can work against us and illuminate one small area of an image while leaving the remainder dark. If you don’t have a space in your home that’s clean, simple and well-lit — like a table in the centre of a sparsely-furnished room with light coming from all sides rather than from directly above — consider taking the photo outdoors on a bright, sunny day. An item photographed outside will be illuminated from all sides plus from above, so all of its details can be highlighted with fewer photos. Strollers, baby carriers and toys are especially well-represented in outdoor photos.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Good to Know, The World of Auctions, Mommy Auctions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.