Tips - Photographs

Auction Photograph Tips

Taking the Photograph

1. You can take a picture with a digital camera attached to your computer.
   
   
2. You can take a picture with a film camera, and then use Scanner to get the picture into your computer.
   
   
3. For relatively flat items (for example; stamps and some jewelry), you may be able to place them directly on to the Scanner's surface.

Photographic Tips

• Make sure your item is well-lit.
  
  
• Avoid cluttered pictures with extraneous detail or other items in the image. Remember the purpose of the picture is to show bidders your item, so they know what they're bidding for.
  
  
• White backgrounds can sometimes spoil pictures, because there is too much contrast. You may wish to consider taking a picture of your item against a backdrop or colored-card.

File Formats

• JPEG is generally better for photographs, as it allows more colors, (and hence a better picture).
  
  Some JPEG compatible software, may give you an option to vary the "Quality" of the image. The better the Quality, the better the picture will come out, but the larger the file will be. Be warned that Low Quality settings may result in your image being distorted.
  
  
• GIF allows less colors than JPEG, and because of this picture in GIF format may sometimes odd. We recommend that you avoid using GIF unless it's the only choice that your software allows.

Image Sizes and Editing

• Most Photo Editing programs have an option called "Trim" or "Crop" which allows you to cut the edges (hopefully just containing the background!) off images.
  
  
• Most Photo Editing programs also have an option called "Scale" or "Resize" which will stretch or shrink the image to a larger or smaller size:
  
  
  • You should try to avoid stretching images, as this can cause lots of distortion. Instead, if you need a larger image, retake your photograph at a higher resolution.
    
    
  • It's okay to shrink images, provided you have a good quality Photo Editing program - but poor quality programs can distort images even when shrinking an image. If you do shrink an image, be sure to shrink it by the same proportion in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions.

Putting Images In Your Listings