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- Nov 14, 2011
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There are many of us in the same boat here and are starting to import products and/or start an e-commerce business. If you are just starting and low on money, you may be able to utilize your point and shoot camera for a while until you afford a proper dslr.
I am no professional photographer, but have been taking pictures of items for ebay for a while now, all using one cheap camera. With these point and shoots, lighting is extremely important. I recently made a light box for about five bucks. I bought a tri fold cardboard white faced posterboard, and put a curved white piece of regular poster board in front of it. I then pointed two fluorescent lamps I already had at the item. No filters were used so there is some glare. I then put the camera in manual mode and took a series of pictures, adjusting the color, shutter etc. I then uploaded these to the computer to pick out the best quality images and duplicate these settings for all product pictures. It may take some time at first, but since I will regularly be using the same lighting, the settings should stay the same or very close.
And the final product is quite sufficient in my opinion for starting a business on a budget. These pictures will still stand out above many e-bay sellers in most categories.
If anyone has even more pointers for using a point and shoot, feel free to chime in. I am aware a dslr is a better option but some of us might as well utilize what we have to minimize expenses.
I am no professional photographer, but have been taking pictures of items for ebay for a while now, all using one cheap camera. With these point and shoots, lighting is extremely important. I recently made a light box for about five bucks. I bought a tri fold cardboard white faced posterboard, and put a curved white piece of regular poster board in front of it. I then pointed two fluorescent lamps I already had at the item. No filters were used so there is some glare. I then put the camera in manual mode and took a series of pictures, adjusting the color, shutter etc. I then uploaded these to the computer to pick out the best quality images and duplicate these settings for all product pictures. It may take some time at first, but since I will regularly be using the same lighting, the settings should stay the same or very close.
And the final product is quite sufficient in my opinion for starting a business on a budget. These pictures will still stand out above many e-bay sellers in most categories.
If anyone has even more pointers for using a point and shoot, feel free to chime in. I am aware a dslr is a better option but some of us might as well utilize what we have to minimize expenses.
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