dudelove
New member
This thread is a result of pondering over why many Softies do not take photos of their gear/items that they want to sell on Soft. Well, a few reasons why one should take photos of their gear, not just ordinary photographs, good photographs.
Good photos of whatever you are trying to sell shows a potential buyer how your item looks like and what kind of condition it is. It gives the potential buyer a gauge of what he's interested in.
This is proven. Providing good photographs, especially if the item you are selling is a beautiful piece of equipment (eg. a flamed top les paul), will cause potential buyers to GAS. And we all know thats a good thing if you're the seller.
Photographs do IMPROVE sales, so I think there is no reason why as a seller photos should be left out of the thread. DONT BE LAZY.
Well, you might be thinking, shucks I dont have a super powerful DSLR, my camera sucks or even, I only have a cellphone camera. Good news, you don't need an expensive camera to take good pictures. You just need to know how to take them. (Cellphone, really a bit difficult, but i'm sure it can be done in the right circumstances.)
Okay, now we know the camera does not matter, so here are a few tips on how you can take better photographs of your gear. Note: All these pictures on the thread are taken with my Sony Cybershot digital camera, an affordable pocket camera. I'll use my strat as the subject. Not the best subject though, doesnt have beautiful flames or quilts.
1. Shoot your image in GOOD lighting.
Lighting makes or breaks a good photo. I noticed most softies take their pictures indoors, inside their room, which is lit by a flourescant lamp. It might seem like ample light to you, but actually its not. When these kinda situations occur, your camera will automatically turn on the flash, resulting in reflections of the subject. Which can have bad results. Fingerprints, smudges all jump out.
C'mon man, my camera didn't even focus.
Try as far as possible not to use the flash, unless its taken a shot of for example, the control cavity of a guitar, where you want the detail of the insides to be brought out.
Well, you can turn off flash on ur camera manually, but there still isn't enough light, so the camera compensates by boosting the ISO. I won't bother explaining what that is because the image explains itself.
Note the excessive noise.
Lastly, in poorly lit places, chances for camera shake is very high. To simplify it, your image is very likely to turn out blur due to the slow shutter speed to allow more light into the camera.
So grab your guitar, or whatever out into the sun, or at least into a very well litted place. This not only rectifies the 2 problems mentioned earlier, the colours just jump out at you, and there's none of the dull, lifeless colours you get when taking in a dark place.
Not the best image but it was raining and this was the best I could get. If you really want the best images, be patient and wait for the best time to take your photo.
Check out the guitars curves due to light reflecting off it.
Settle the lighting, once thats done, more of less, you have a good image. Lighting is the most important factor when it comes to taking an image. Not the camera, thats why I stressed that even a cellphone can take decent pictures.
If you absolutely must take them indoors with poor lighting, use a tripod, turn off flash, set the cameras ISO at the lowest, and use the timer. Your finger pressing on the shutter can cause the camera to shake.
Good photos of whatever you are trying to sell shows a potential buyer how your item looks like and what kind of condition it is. It gives the potential buyer a gauge of what he's interested in.
This is proven. Providing good photographs, especially if the item you are selling is a beautiful piece of equipment (eg. a flamed top les paul), will cause potential buyers to GAS. And we all know thats a good thing if you're the seller.
Photographs do IMPROVE sales, so I think there is no reason why as a seller photos should be left out of the thread. DONT BE LAZY.
Well, you might be thinking, shucks I dont have a super powerful DSLR, my camera sucks or even, I only have a cellphone camera. Good news, you don't need an expensive camera to take good pictures. You just need to know how to take them. (Cellphone, really a bit difficult, but i'm sure it can be done in the right circumstances.)
Okay, now we know the camera does not matter, so here are a few tips on how you can take better photographs of your gear. Note: All these pictures on the thread are taken with my Sony Cybershot digital camera, an affordable pocket camera. I'll use my strat as the subject. Not the best subject though, doesnt have beautiful flames or quilts.
1. Shoot your image in GOOD lighting.
Lighting makes or breaks a good photo. I noticed most softies take their pictures indoors, inside their room, which is lit by a flourescant lamp. It might seem like ample light to you, but actually its not. When these kinda situations occur, your camera will automatically turn on the flash, resulting in reflections of the subject. Which can have bad results. Fingerprints, smudges all jump out.
C'mon man, my camera didn't even focus.
Try as far as possible not to use the flash, unless its taken a shot of for example, the control cavity of a guitar, where you want the detail of the insides to be brought out.
Well, you can turn off flash on ur camera manually, but there still isn't enough light, so the camera compensates by boosting the ISO. I won't bother explaining what that is because the image explains itself.
Note the excessive noise.
Lastly, in poorly lit places, chances for camera shake is very high. To simplify it, your image is very likely to turn out blur due to the slow shutter speed to allow more light into the camera.
So grab your guitar, or whatever out into the sun, or at least into a very well litted place. This not only rectifies the 2 problems mentioned earlier, the colours just jump out at you, and there's none of the dull, lifeless colours you get when taking in a dark place.
Not the best image but it was raining and this was the best I could get. If you really want the best images, be patient and wait for the best time to take your photo.
Check out the guitars curves due to light reflecting off it.
Settle the lighting, once thats done, more of less, you have a good image. Lighting is the most important factor when it comes to taking an image. Not the camera, thats why I stressed that even a cellphone can take decent pictures.
If you absolutely must take them indoors with poor lighting, use a tripod, turn off flash, set the cameras ISO at the lowest, and use the timer. Your finger pressing on the shutter can cause the camera to shake.
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