Millions of people sell products on eBay every day. Many times the seller is selling a product such as a book or software of which a product shot is available online, and so the seller uses the existing photo rather than taking a photo. While this is a timesaver, products that sell best are those that include photos of the actual products. In this section, you learn the basics about how to photograph your priceless objects to get the best price for them.

Keep It Simple

Do not take a photo of an object that has a cluttered background or a background that is the same color as the subject you are photographing. You want the eyes of the potential buyer to focus on the object that you want to sell and not to be lost in the background.

Fill the Screen

Fill the screen with the subject you want to sell. If the object you are photographing is small and in the background, and the potential buyer has a difficult time examining it, he will move on to similar objects for sale.

Use Props to Hold Objects Up

If the object is a book or something that typically lies flat, prop it up by putting it in a stand or by putting something behind it. Do not take a photo of it lying down because it will appear wider at the bottom and the top will be out of focus or dark.

Focus, Focus, Focus

The autofocus (AF) system of a digital camera typically has a difficult time focusing under low light or when the subject is really close. Make sure your photos are in focus by viewing them on your computer and not just the LCD screen on the back of your camera. If they are out of focus, add more lighting and shoot the photos again.

Use Your Other Digital Camera

Rather than attempting to photograph objects that are small (such as stamps, coins, and so on) with a digital camera, consider putting these items on the copy glass of a scanner. Good scanners cost less than $50 and produce excellent high-resolution images.

Close-up photography (called macro photography) opens up a whole new world of detail. With most digital cameras, it does not require any special equipment because the cameras have a macro mode built into the camera. This section covers some very simple and basic rules for taking macro photographs.

Switch the Camera to Macro Mode

Most digital cameras have a macro mode that is enabled by selecting the mode with a dial or from a menu on the LCD screen. When the camera is in macro mode, it can focus on subjects that are as close as 1 inch from the camera lens.

Get Close to Your Subject

Often the subjects of macro photography are at or near ground level. The best way to create a great photo is to get down on the ground with the subject. This allows you to steady the camera with your elbows on something solid, such as the ground.

Use a Focus Light

When photographing natural subjects under low lighting conditions, the autofocus, or AF, system of the camera often has a difficult time finding the sharpest focus. If your camera does not have a built-in autofocus assist light, buy a tiny key ring flashlight at a camera or sporting goods store. They are very small and cost less than $10. This allows you to illuminate the subject with one hand while holding the camera as it is focusing with the other hand.

Depth of Field

When a camera is in macro mode, depth of field (DOF) is greatly reduced. This means that something only a few inches behind the subject may be completely out of focus. Reducing the aperture (increasing the f-stop number) can help increase the amount of area that will be in focus but it will rarely be more than a few inches in macro mode. In most cases, it produces a soft background that enhances the photo.

Taking photos at night without the use of flash can produce dramatic pictures; the camera changes the way areas of light and dark appear. The necessity to leave the shutter open for long periods of time to get a proper exposure produces streaks of lights as moving cars go past the camera lens. The light produced by high-pressure street lamps changes the colors of ordinary scenes into something surreal.

Use Night Mode If your camera has a night mode setting, you should use it. Usually selected through a dial setting, the night mode usually increases the ISO (sensitivity) settings of the camera to a high level. This higher setting allows you to take photos without a flash but it also increases the amount of noise in the photo.

Keep Your Camera Steady If your subject is stationary, you can take a photo under low lighting conditions by stabilizing your camera. In most cases, this means using a tripod, but a camera placed on a bean bag on something solid will work just as well. The only problem with this approach is if the subject moves — your steady camera is of no use then.

Firework displays dazzle viewers but can be a real challenge for the digital photographer to capture. Although the lights in the sky are beautiful to the human eye, they are dim to the digital camera and confuse many of the mechanisms in the camera such as autofocus and light metering. A few digital cameras actually have a fireworks shooting mode, but most do not. Here are some basic things to know about photographing fireworks.

Capture Firework Displays

SET UP YOUR CAMERA

CAPTURE A BURST OF FIREWORKS