Photo tips to make your product look its best

If you need a photo of something you’re selling on eBay, or a product photo for your media kit or website, and you don’t have a bucket of money to spend on a professional photographer, check out this great list of photo tips courtesy of AuctionBytes.com.

They explain how to buy inexpensive lights and other gadgets that will help you take good-looking photos. If you have Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher, you can see the nifty demonstration that shows what a product photo looks like if you use a technique called “three-point lighting” which requires three lights positioned at different angles. (Netscape may not work with this demo.) 

The tips are targeted to those who sell items on eBay, but I think they’re just as valuable for do-it-yourself photographers who need photos for other purposes.

As I explained in my ebook “How to Use Photos & Graphics in Your Publicity Campaign,” today’s digital cameras make it fairly easy for anybody to take great-looking photos that you can even submit to the media. Trade magazines, in particular, need product photos. So sure that your press releases on new products link to high-resolution photos (300 dots per inch) that can be downloaded at your website. 

 

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  • Angie Pedersen

    One of the scrapbooking magazines offered tips on doing a “home photo shoot” several years ago. Some of their tips:
    * try taking a photo near a window for natural lighting
    * set up a photo shoot in your garage with the door up – drape a white or black sheet over a ladder for a backdrop.
    * take photos outside in early morning or late afternoon (the light is best then)

    Both of my “professional” photos have been done at home by my husband (who is definitely not a photographer).

  • Angie Pedersen

    A follow-up — Digital Scrapbooking’s premiere issue (on newsstands now) has a feature article on setting up a home studio, with suggestions on lighting, backgrounds, camera settings, and more. Very comprehensive.

  • jack

    oh thanks for giving me this information, Because before this information i was not aware about it that how a person can make a setting of studio and some camera background and also with lighting.