After the title, your photos are the most important tool to get your auction more hits, more viewers and more bids.  Photos are the only way your bidders can see your product.  Unlike a brick and mortar store, they can't hold the item and see it's qualities and flaws.

Are you using gallery photos yet?  If not, go start.  If so, let's talk about it.
Having that little photo in the gallery listing can make the difference in whether someone looks further than your title.  It is well worth the .35 cents!

There are plenty of tutorials on eBay about how to take good photos.  This isn't one of them.

In this guide we will discuss things NOT to do when posting photos.

Avoid using:

• Photos that are too dark.  If all they can see it a dark blob in your gallery photo, how can they know what they are looking at?  Set up a small staging area for your photos in the corner by a window.  If you don't have good access to indirect lighting, then use a photoshop type of brightening tool.  Most modern operating systems have one in the accessories. 
• Blurry photos.  Use a tripod.  If you don't have one, try setting your camera on a stool or other flat, stable surface to get nice, crisp photos. 
• Too many photos.  Many people have dial up and slow loading times can make them give up on waiting for your images to appear.  If you do use a lot of photos use the "standard" ebay photo layout so they are in thumbnails which load much more easily. 

Remember to:

• Use a background that highlights your product.  Don't take a photo of a light colored object on a light colored background or vice-versa, a dark object on a dark background.  You don't need anything fancy, a solid colored towel, sheet over a door, pillowcase or tabletop will do fine.
• Use close up photos of small objects and details.  I find that taking a photo of a small flaw or a clothing tag from a couple of feet back and then cropping it down in a photoshop type program works better than trying to get super close ups of things. 

• Try to explain any color differences between your photos and your actual product.  Monitors will always have variences but if your photo is really off hue, try to describe the color in your description. ie: canary yellow, sky blue, cherry red.