correctmyphotos

So far in this series of posts on Better eBay Sales with Better Photos I described the various photo shoot setups for photographing items for sale. I have been using my Stangl Bird collection as examples because they are representative of the items many people are selling on eBay and because I plan to start liquidating my bird collection. In fact, yesterday afternoon I photographed 20 birds using the light tent. I took about 5 or 6 shots of each of different views (side, back, front, base, etc.) so the potential buyer can see the characteristics, quality and flaws, if any, of the item.  As I look at other birds for sale on eBay I find that most of them are poorly presented and one would have difficultly deciding if they are worth buying.  If you have followed this series of posts you might recall the example I used in the first post comparing a bird photo I “borrowed” from an eBay listing with a photo I took of a similar bird in my collection. Here it is again, however, with a new photo I took using the light tent configuration with artificial lighting. 

Which Stangl Hummingbird would you buy?

UseMultiple Views for Greater Sales Impact
One of the benefits of digital photography is that you can easily take many shots of an item making it easier for the prospective buyer to make a buy decision. Taking mutiple photos of an object is real easy once you have the photo setup. Here is a composite of photos of the bird from different angles. (Note: the composite photo is for illustration only. You will want to show individual photos in your listing.)

Use Multiple Photos to Show Off Your eBay Listing

Photo Editing Required
Wouldn’t it be nice if my original photos were just like the ones shown above. Alas, that is not the case. My photos, as will yours, require editing. They need to be color corrected and cropped. This process can be easy or difficult depending on the photo editor you use as will the quality of the edited photo. In this post I will show you how to edit the photos using CorrectPhoto with OneClick Color. In a future post I will describe the process using Photoshop Elements for those of you who have it.

CorrectPhoto Editor
There are several reasons I use CorrectPhoto for most of my editing (I do use Elements when I have to.). The main reason is its simplicity. This is the tool bar of available editing functions.

CorrectPhoto Editor Easy Tool Bar

For editing the bird photos I used the cropping function and OneClick Color correction function. The second reason is the OneClick Color correction. And, the third reason is the AutoRez algorithm in CorrectPhoto’s cropping function which maintains the original resolution of the photo after cropping. These features combine to make it not only easy, but extremely fast to edit photos. It took less than 5 minutes to color correct, crop and save the seven photos in the composite example shown above.

OneClick Color Correction

CorrectPhoto OneClick Color Correction-Click on Gray Background for Auto Color

As I previously mentioned, I recommend using a gray background because it doesn’t detract from the object and it is the ideal background for OneClick color correction. If you have a GretagMacbeth Gray Balance Card (this is the mini version) I suggest you use it. Just place it such that it can be easily cropped out of the photo. When opening the photo in CorrectPhoto the OneClick Color is activated. Simply click on the gray card or the gray background (if it is truly gray) and the color cast will be removed and the exposure, contrast and saturation will be fixed. If you want to tweak the color a bit more use the Enhancement function to adjust the brightness and saturation as I did in this example.

Crop to Size

Crop photo to highlight the object

 The next step is to select the cropping format (i.e. variable,  3×4, etc.) and position the box over the selected area. Click Apply and you are done. Here is the Before/After view. The AutoRez feature in CorrectPhoto will automatically re-scale the photo to the original resolution to maintain quality. This really is an important feature when you are doing close cropping and subsequent re-sizing for upload to eBay and will guarantee the highest quality image.

Final Crop of Hummingbird compared with original photo

Crop Close to Show Detail
To show the quality of the item you are selling it might be helpful to show a small portion of the object. In the Stangl Bird collectors world there are a lot of bird beaks that have been repaired over the years. So, to show that my bird’s beak is a really good beak (how is that for a statement?) I did a close crop of the flower and the beak.

Crop close to show quality of the item you want to sell

Creating Better eBay Photos is a Simple Process
Creating better eBay photos is really a simple process. It starts with the right photo setup, using a neutral background, taking multiple photos of the item, and editing the photos (crop and color correction). CorrectPhoto makes it easy and fast. If you have Photoshop Elements it might take a little longer but with iCorrect OneClick Plug-in the color correction will be as easy and the OneClick in CorrectPhoto. I will go through the Elements process in another post.

Wayne  www.correctphoto.com