correctmyphotos

ImageTitler_tutorial-05

Image Titler

Wayne
www.imagetitler.com, www. correctphoto.com

Why don’t eBay sellers title photos?

As you know if you have been following my postings on Better eBay Sales with Better Photos I am new to selling items on eBay.  After posting a few of birds from my Stangl Bird Collection on eBay it occurred to me that it might be helpful to add the name and catalog number to the photos. This might be particularly helpful for items that are identified both by name and number as is the case with Stangl Birds. I suspect I am not the first one to think about adding a title to an eBay photo, but when I checked the listing of Stangl birds on eBay there were no photos with titles. Maybe it is because most people don’t know how to add a title to a photo or they think it is too difficult or time consuming.

Add a title to eBay listing photo

How to Title Photos

It really is easy and fast to add titles to photos if you have the right tool. If you know how to use Photoshop Elements it is relatively easy to add text to a photo using the text tool. And, you will have a lot of flexibility in font selection, size, spacing, and special effects. But, it can be a bit time consuming and if you don’t have a good working knowledge of Elements it will be frustrating.  Here is a link to a tutorial on adding titles to photos using Elements. http://www.alibony.com/pse/20090519text.htm 

(continue reading…)

Resize your images before uploading to eBay

These past few days I have been learning how to sell on eBay. I finally decided to sell my Stangl Bird collection and to try eBay as the sales outlet.  If you have been following my blog you know I have written several posts on how to take photos for eBay and editing them for the best presentation using CorrectPhoto Editor.  The next step was to find the best way to present the photos of the item for sale.  I wasn’t impressed with eBay’s standard photo presentation and Craig told me about Auctiva. Auctiva is an eBay listing service that simplifies the process of eBay listings with a great photo storage and presentation feature. It also provides templates that make professional listings easy. Here is an example of one of my Stangl Bird listings. I chose a “neutral” (remember in photography neutral is black, white, or gray, not beige) background without a lot of clutter so the background doesn’t distract from the item photos.  On the eBay listing page the viewer can click on the smaller image and a full size (1024×768) image pops up.

Auctiva Listing Service Makes eBay Listing and Photo Uploading Easy

Since the maximum image size (1024×768) is generally smaller than the original or edited digital camera file you have two choices: upload the large file and let the photo service resize the image or resize the image before you upload the file. My recommendation is to resize the image before you upload the file. If you have Photoshop or Elements you can resize the photos by selecting Image/Resize/Image Size form the menu bar and entering the number of pixels (i.e 1024) for the width or the height and save the new size.

Using Photoshop Elements to Resize Images Before Uploading

I use CorrectPhoto to resize my photos because it is much easier and faster and, more importantly; the resize algorithm is very good. And, I usually do one click on the Sharpening icon to make the resized photo a little crisper. (continue reading…)

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

(continue reading…)

In my previous post, Better eBay Sales with Better Photos-The Photo Shoot Setup, I described two setups: indoor with artificial light and outdoor with natural light and compared the two. My preference between the two was using natural light. I also said that I ordered a light tent to use indoors with artificial light. I ordered it from OBN Photographic Equipment and it arrived yesterday. 

OBN 20” Light Tent
The light tent kit (http://www.obnphoto.com/light_tent.html) included a foldable tent, and four backdrops (white, black, gray, and blue), and a storage case.  For my purposes I selected a 20 inch tent but they offer sizes ranging from 12” to 86”. Here is a photo of my initial test set up.

Light Tent Setup-Light Tent from OBN Photographic Equipment

I chose to use the gray backdrop for reasons that I explained in my previous post and took a few test shots with different lamp positions. I also set my camera to aperture preferred (f8) instead of auto exposure for greater depth of field.  Here is an edited photo of a test shot taken with the best lamp position.

Stangl Bird Photo using Light Tent and Edited with CorrectPhoto Editor

(continue reading…)