How to Photograph Books for eBay

A big part of successful eBay auctions and sales is photographing the item well. Books are popular sellers on eBay and require some special techniques to photograph well. Reading this article will walk you step by step on how to photograph books for eBay.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Poster board
• Natural light
• Photo editing software

1. Make sure the book is not a relatively recent book or text book with an ISBN number. If so, you can enter the number and eBay will often have the photo for you.

2. Lay a large piece of poster board in natural, but not direct, sunlight. Near a window or door is great, but don't have the sunlight streaming on the poster board or the lighting will be too severe.

3. Lay the book on the poster board with the spine facing you. Take several pictures of the book, being sure to fill the entire frame with the book.

4. In your photo editing software, rotate the picture so that the book is now "standing" upright.

Tips & Warnings

• You can use different colors of poster board to complement the book.
• Black poster board is a classic look.
• White poster board can give the book a "floating" look.

Resources

• EBAY PHOTO STUDIO
• American Recorder Classic Photo Studio-in-a-Box (with free shipping)

[rolandtumble]

on 8/29/2009 Non-shiny wrapping paper works well, too. You can usually get it by the foot from party supply stores.

[misssuzi]

on 4/16/2009 Good suggestion! Thanks!

[amberdawn]

on 11/29/2008 Ooh, clever! I may try this for other objects too. I'd just been holding objects to photograph on ehow, but I like the idea of rotating them after laying them on poster board, thanks. 5*

[showpup]

on 10/17/2008 Thanks for the tip

[LilacGirl]

on 10/15/2008 Good suggestions. My ebay book photos need improvement so I'll try the posterboard background. Thanks!