correctmyphotos

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…)

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

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Every Digital Photo Needs to Be Cropped! Why?

Because we can!
The first reason is “because we can” and that is one of the real benefits and joys of digital photography. With a little cropping we can turn an average picture into a memorable photo. With film photography we basically had to accept what we got when we picked up our prints. How many times have you wished you could retake the shot and not include someones elbow or half a face? With a digital image we can easily trim or eliminate portions of the picture we don’t want or need.

Cropping Out the Fence Makes This a Better Picture

Aspect Ratios Vary
The aspect ratio (the ratio of the width to the height of the picture) of a digital camera sensor is typically 4×3 (1.33). The aspect ratio of a 4×6 (6×4) print is 1.5. The format for HDTV is 16×9 or 1.78. so, if you want 4×6 prints you should decide what portions of the image should be cut off and not let the printer software decide for you. Here is an example of what can happen if you let the printer decide where to crop the photo–And, it is my head that go clipped!

Crop photos before you send them to the printer

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