5 things to think about when taking pictures of items for sale

Whenever I look at used items sold on Facebook Marketplace or eBay, I’m horrified to see how awful the majority of the item pictures are.

When doing my own moving out sale, I spent a lot of time on the pictures used to promote the items. Something that I believe contributed in a very high degree to the success of the sale. I got a lot of compliments and comments like “oh, it looks so professional”, “it all looks almost new” and “I got interested in your stuff as you seem to really take good care of them given the pictures”.

Of course, many of the items were in very good shape, but I believe that it do requires a little bit of effort to make sure that comes across in a picture. Here are five good rules that I always try to follow.

1. Keep it clean
2. Make sure you have good light
3. Remove “dead space”
4. Be aware of “lines and angles”
5. Cut in close and show details

1. Keep it clean

Anything that doesn’t have to be in the photo, remove it. It is what you are selling that is important and anything else that comes in frame will distract from that. It will in many cases also make your item feel more “used” and not in as good condition.

If you have a big item, like a sofa, make sure nothing is on the sofa and everything around it is removed. If the apartment looks clean and well taken care of, the sofa will come across as clean and well taken care of.

Don’t be lazy! It should be easy enough to tidy up and remove unnecessary objects. Avoid angles that shows any mess.

A clean tidy setting is so much nicer to look at!

2. Make sure you have good light

I cannot stress this enough, try to have your setting well lit. This is probably the number one issue I see looking at other’s sale items.

If possible, use as much natural daylight as you can (but of course consider the backlight from windows if shooting indoors). If natural daylight is not possible, don’t be afraid to add extra lamps to a scene, or move the object if possible to a better lit location.

The sofa shot at night versus day. At night the weak room light gives the sofa a more yellow, dull look not nearly as sharp. The shadows also adds a distraction to the picture, and overall it looks less premium.

3. Remove dead space.

Focus on your object. Try to find an angle that leaves as little “uninteresting” space in the picture as possible.

In this case, there is really no need to show the router’s cords. Remove anything unnecessary and try to come closer to the object.

For big objects, don’t be afraid to cut off parts if it gives the picture better balance. You can always complement with more angles of the object if something will be missed out. If you can (and know how to), use cropping tools afterwards to cut away unimportant parts and/or correct balance issues.

In this case, coming closer to the sofa removes the annoying bottom of the picture frame as well as the power outlet, which gives the composition a calmer appearance.

Another common trick to balance a composition is to leave more space above than under an object so it “rests more comfortably”.

4. Be aware of lines and angles

Humans have a strong tendency to either consciously or unconsciously obsess about angles and order. For me a picture on the wall not hanging straight really itches.

When taking your photo, try to look at where the straight lines are and keep them straight. And when I talk about straight lines I refer to visible or invisible lines either going upwards from the floor, or horizontally (horizon). Think gravity and try to avoid the sense of objects “tipping” in your composition.

This is a very subtle example where the “shelf line” helps balance the composition just by being straightened up.

Besides following the previous rules (keep it clean, have good light, remove dead space), we also straighten the angles.

By choosing a better angle and coming up closer we achieve a much more satisfying composition. Also note that there is more space above than under to give better balance.

Here we have two good alternatives. The right picture is overall calm and satisfying, while the left picture is showing interesting dynamic angles (though still balanced with its levelled horizon). Both complementing each other very well.

The lines doesn’t have to be obvious. Some times the picture is deliberately angled, like in this case to show the desk and chair well, but there is still an invisible vertical line that helps balance it.

5. Cut in close and show details

If you have the ability to upload several images of your object, don’t be afraid to go in and take some sharp pictures of details. Materials, patterns, seams, things that you need to come up close to get a feel for. From experience I can tell buyers really appreciate being able to see these kind of details.

Showing the jeans jacket worn can of course be good, and showing close up details takes it even further.

Nice close ups of the sofa further emphasise its quality.

Closing comments

All the pictures above were taken with my iPhone X, which of course has a very good camera, but I think the results are possible to reproduce with most modern smartphones today.

As for image processing, nothing has been done to the pictures besides cropping (in a few cases). For the more advanced users I can recommend correcting white balance as well when needed (something that is possible in most photo editing softwares). This helps a lot by removing yellowish or bluish light and make the light in your different shots more consistent.

Examples of correcting white balance to remove the yellow tone.

I know composing quality pictures is not an easy task and I don’t claim to be an expert of any sorts, but I do hope these few tips can be of help to someone.

Best of luck!

P.S. If you are in the process of doing a sale, I invite you to try out Diggsweep. An online service where anyone easily and without any technical knowledge can create their own personal sale site. If you are in the position of doing a sale yourself, go ahead and try it out, it’s free!