How many times have you decided not to purchase an item because of poor or insufficient images of the product being offered, or worse yet, purchased an item that was not as you expected and would not have been purchased at all had better images been provided, and worse of all, even still, having received an item which it seems was intentionally photographed in a way to hide flaws or damage?

     Of course, it is realistic to understand that you may identify the item you purchased in a way that the seller failed to recognize, but one of the good things about the eBay market place is that most people are proud of what they offer and will gladly work with you if you communicate any problems or misunderstandings. "Communication is key" we like to think, and your images are a serious and direct form of this communication process. Use the links on any auction page to e-mail the seller. Most people will be more than happy to discuss any matters over the telephone if you prefer, but it is also reasonable to understand the relative anonymity many might enjoy as apposed to running a regular "walk in" type store front.

      We will attempt to describe a few things we discovered on eBay, over time, while inserting photos in our listings, and while making our own purchases from other sellers. Also, please remember, we are no more than beginners in photography, and use a middle of the road digital camera from a Super Center with no accessories other than rechargeable batteries and a charger. In the long run, your photographs may be the single most important asset your buyer has at their disposal during the decision making process. Pricing, choosing the correct catagory in which to list, and the written item description are also paramount.

     Always, in general, include a gallery view image in your listings. This is where most people browse the auctions, and if there is not a thumbnail image of your product it will most often be disregarded. On the other hand, it is understandable to expect a 25 cent item to not have a gallery image inserted, as that would destroy any profit margin a seller might enjoy.

     Also, please excuse us if we get sidetracked with related ideas in this guide.

     In regards to choosing a camera, a digital model (no film) would be preferred, and will shortly, or already is the only viable camera available for general usage. Of course one could use a film style (analog) camera, have the images developed at a photo lab, and then scan them to a digital format for internet usage, but we will not deal with that here.

     Any middle priced camera ($100-200) or better should be more than adequate, and even the less expensive models will suffice if you choose carefully. For the most common usages on eBay it would probably be a good idea to find a model that has a decent (or dedicated) Close Up feature. Most images will not need to be exhibition quality, so the more expensive models of digital cameras would be fabulous for the pros, or those with a keen interest, but a regular, or comparatively inexpensive model will do the trick.

     A very good secondary investment is rechargeable batteries with spares, and a charger (if not provided with the camera). It saves tons of money in the long run, and you will never be left "dead in the water" during one of your photo shoots for a lack of batteries. Film and battery purchases and trips to the lab, or store, will also be a thing of the past with a digital camera. Time will be saved also. Selling and buying is fun for most of us, but irregardless of that, time is money.

     Most computers (especially Windows XP) will recognize your camera (without even installing any of the software that came with your camera) when you plug it into the USB port, of your machine (with the window displayed below). Then you can download (off load) your images to a folder, of your choosing, on your computer. This is a good thing because most digital cameras come bundled with all kinds of useless software that many would prefer not to clutter their computer systems up with, or dedicate the time to learn about yet another program, but then again maybe you will discover something useful, new, or interesting on the camera install CD itself.

     Lighting is, of course, a crucial factor in any photograph. From our experience natural lighting usually gives the most accurate representation of an item, and saves money (usually quicker, and fewer accessories to purchase). Ideally one could set up multiple flash units, in maybe an offset triangular configuration, for magazine, or studio quality photos, but we have definitely not advanced to that level ourselves. The problem with the "on camera" flash is often the dark shadows (caused by the areas in which the single flash unit could not illuminate) which destroy the photograph. These can be reduced by placing incandescent or florescent lights at the proper locations (to illuminate the shade or shadows), or setting the object to be photographed, in a way to take full advantage of the ambient or natural (sunlight) lighting. Also, glare and reflections are a common annoyance using a flash, as is "red eye" with animals.

     Color is always another tricky matter and should be closely scrutinized for an accurate representation in your photographs. Though, even if you feel the colors look near to "true life", a potential buyers web browser may not show them as you view them on your computer. Also, even outside of the web browser issues (most of the people use Windows XP, Internet Explorer IE or FireFox as their browser, have JavaScript turned on, use 24 or 32 bit hardware to display 16,777,216 different colors, and have their screen resolution set at 1024x768), factors such as an individuals monitor (display or computer screen) settings can alter the color display, as compared to what you were viewing.

     Take multiple shots of every view you wish to represent. We have found it a good idea to take 5 or so similar shots of every image you intend to use. Then at least one, of each angle or pose, will probably be what you are looking for, without any blur, undesirable reflections, etc.

     Carefully choose your backdrop, or background, to compliment your image. A regular bed sheet (or two to avoid the area behind from bleeding through), of the color of your choosing generally works fine (for example, avoid a complicated background, or a dark background with a dark colored item you are photographing). It would be nice to have an area dedicated solely to photography, but many of us can not afford that luxury. At the minimum, try to use the same area, if possible, so you will become familiar with any peculiarities that you may have to deal with in your photos (especially lighting).

     After you have transferred your images over to your computer, from your camera, it might be nice to organize them in folders, of your choosing, for later reference. Also, it will probably become a common practice to crop the images in order to highlight the item in a positive way. Be carefull to crop in a standard rectangular (photograph shaped) fashion, because that is how they will be displayed on eBay (default). If you crop an image, of say, a fishing pole, to a long thin area, it will more than likely be displayed as poorly viewable sliver when you upload it to your auction. In a case such as that, it may be better to have the object running diagonally within the image area to allow the viewer of that image a higher apparent or real resolution.

 <-- an awesome Epic V10 Surf Ski!

     Could the above image be better viewed on an average users computer screen by utilizing a diagonal image? The area between the top and bottom diagonal corners on a standard computer screen is greater than the horizontal plane (or edge to edge) area similar to the method used in the above photograph. Think about angles and depth in your presentations.

     Most computers will come bundled with the software you need to prepare or manipulate your images. Outside of that, we like the free downloadable "IrfanView" for quick and simple viewing and editing. If you do need more guts in your imaging software than the very simple programs will provide then Paint.NET v2.64 is a nice, and free program. If you need even more features than that, check out the free GIMPShop which rivals some of the best around, though for most of us it may be a bit complicated.

     Personally, we try to do not much more than crop the image, because it would be tempting to perfect the image to a point where it would no longer be an honest and true representation of the product you wish to sell. Within the eBay "Picture Manager" subscription you can Rotate, Crop, Autofix?, increase or decrease contrast, and lighten or darken the image with the controls demonstrated below, if you wish.

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     Of course, moderation, practice, patience and honesty all come into play at this point.

    After you have all your images ready to go you can just upload them to eBay, from your computer, in a standard way, in which you will be walked through while listing your item by using the "sell your item" template on eBay.

     However, we prefer the "Picture Manager" to insert images in the auctions because, for one, you can offset the additional image fees during your listing insertion, and if you have, or decide to have an eBay store in the future, you can move an item from the "regular style auction" to your "store fixed price auction" (if an item did not sell for example), or just use it to list the item in your store from the beginning, and all along the way you will have the images in your auction linked via the Picture Manager. You will not be hit with additional picture fees other than what it might cost to subscribe to eBays Picture Manager service at the level you choose. The window below is where you would choose the pictures from your computer to upload to the image hosting web site.

     There are many other image hosting sites available, such as "MyImageHub" (free) which could also be used in conjunction with eBay. We like using the eBay "Picture Manager" though, simply because we feel its reliability will remain similar to that of the eBay site in general. You can also use your image hosting site (or web server space) to store backup copies of your icons, logos, family pictures, or what have you. Personally, we would use a bit of caution in storing any personal, or sensitive data on another persons machine (or server) without any forethought.

     However, many encryption methods are available for your use, and it is even quite common to embed data, and especially text, within an image itself for a type of hiding place, but then again, this is an issue for another story. Just always remember that you can trust most of the people all of the time, but all of the people none of the time. Always be sensible and remember not everyone has good intentions for others set as one of their personal goals.

     Anyhow, when using the eBay "Picture Manager", or the picture hosting site of your choosing, you will find an option to copy the web links (as pictured below) that will point to the pictures you uploaded to a server (the web or other hosting service). You would copy and paste these links into your listing, usually somewhere in the item description phase, being sure to switch to the HTML view, while making the listing.

     While copying these links that point to your uploaded pictures, that will be displayed in your auction, you will have the choice to link to (in eBays Picture Manager, at least):

• Thumbnail versions of your photos
• Preview (larger) images of the same
• Standard images (400x400 DPI)
• Images with a watermark (which is the camera image in the lower right hand corner you may have noticed in some eBay photos).
• Images watermarked with your eBay user name
• The original size image you uploaded. (Note: We usually upload 2500x1920 DPI images. If you use a link to the original (such as this), and it is a large image, some browsers may be set to resize it so it displays properly within the window, but others may display a huge photo that can not be seen in its entirety, and will need to be scrolled within the users web browser to see all of it. It should be also taken into consideration that many users will have varying internet speeds, and if one was on a dialup, or certain wireless internet accounts it could take forever to load your auction web page.

     If you use the standard item description form, during the listing phase of inserting your auction, you will need to click on the "enter your own HTML" tab, for a moment, and enter the link(s) (pointing to the picture[s] you had previously uploaded) within this HTML view to put your photos in the auction. If HTML is Greek to you it would probably be safe to just paste your picture links, like those shown in the 2 examples above, at the very end of the HTML window (pictured below). You can then switch back to the standard view, if you prefer, and hit the preview button at the bottom of this window captured below to make sure it is as you desire before continuing on to the shipping phase of the listing.

     Here is an example of the Picture Manager in actual usage below.

     All the images, in this guide, would be similar to a "preview" size picture in the Picture Manager. The "thumbnail" size would be about the size visible when searching for an item using the "gallery" view (or about 1/4 of these shown), and the "standard" size is larger than these, and are similar to those pasted into the individual auction pages, like those in our listings (which can be accessed in the store Hornwaddler ).  A link (image) to the "original" image, if you uploaded it to the Picture Manager that way, would be whatever size you originally saved the picture at (which in the case of our 2500x1920 save setting we use on our camera would be maybe 50 times the size of these images);

• photo with user id and watermark added (user ID on lower left, and watermark on lower right).

     Well, hopefully this was not confusing to read. Some of these ideas will become obvious to you while experimenting with some of the different things we discussed.

     We also wanted to mention a few resources that have helped us along the way.

     So, thanks go to the free "Gadwin PrintScreen" utility. "SpoofStick" is also a good tool for those of you who feel the eBay toolbar is too bloated.

     Lastly, but not least, go to "TweakGuides" especially if you are a gamer, but even if not, check into his home page regularly and you will be kept abreast of important technological events regarding critical advancements, and other matters of similar interest to keep our computers and favorite applications tuned and up to date..

     Well, there are a million other ways to get this same job (in dealing with your images) accomplished, but we can only attempt to review the manner in which we have stumbled upon, in our work, and found to be the best, so far. Explore your resources; it is often a fun way to spend some time!

     Vote below if you want.

     Thanks for the interest,

     Hornwaddler