How to photograph a book to sell at auction

It is never a good idea to start any article with a tired old cliché, but I am afraid that in this case it is highly relevant to this article;

"A picture paints a thousand words!!".

This has never been truer than in today's arena of online selling. Unlike the 'bricks and mortar' real world, potential online customers do not have the luxury of physically inspecting their prospective purchase(s), so must rely solely upon the description that you provide and more importantly on the photographs that you have taken of your sale item. If you have ever been on some auction sites, for instance Ebay, you may have noticed that two similar items often sell for vastly differing amounts. Yes, some of this may be down to the sellers feedback points, the quantity of that particular item that is available at that time or a multitude of other reasons, but I would wager that on the vast majority of occasions it is down to the description, but equally important, if not more so, it is due to the way the item has been photographed. For example, you have two identical items for sale, both described in exactly the same fashion, each accompanied by photographs, which is where the similarities end. One has several first rate, clear, focused and well lit photographs, whilst the other has some blurry, flash obscured photos. Which item would you be more inclined to bid on? You only have to trawl the numerous auctions on ebay to find some truly woeful pictures that people try to sell their items with.

As a seller it can be confusing and discouraging to find that your item has sold for considerably less than a fellow seller of the same item or as a reflection of its true sale potential. Is it down to blind luck, market timing or feedback points, that the other seller is achieving a higher sale on his book? The answer is that there is only one consistent and prevailing factor! An exceptional photograph.

Most photographs that appear on auction sites are seriously lacking. It is a never ending source of amazement how some sellers believe they will achieve good sales by posting seriously flawed photographs of their items. In the vast majority of cases the flaws may be singular or a combination of flaws, such as camera flash obscuring part of the book, blurred or out of focus images, poor lighting, washed out or over exposed images, angles used that distort the images or lack lustre colors that makes the item appear flat. Even stock photographs used by sellers are often ineffective.

For me, one of the worst offenders are those featuring the sellers sausage fingers holding pages open and on more than one occasion I have seen photographs taken from a standing position with the photographers 'Shrek' like bare feet in the frame. Rather than looking at the book you spend your time with your eyes inexorably drawn to the state of the unkempt feet protruding into the picture frame like a particularly bad car crash!!

What you as the seller ideally want to achieve is a picture that leaps out at you and conveys to the buyer the condition and value of the book and also to highlight any unique selling points. Effective book photography is not difficult and improving your skills with a camera does not have to take long. This article will show you how to produce effective and successful pictures that will help you sell that book.

Firstly, have a look at some of the following examples to make the points raised a little clearer..

This photograph is out of focus and was taken at an angle, distorting the books shape. Also the colors are dull and flat, lacking oomph! Images like this can be seen all the time on auction sites, which lead you to believe that a lot of sellers think that this is acceptable. How wrong they are!!

The focus on this image is much better. The book has been photographed from above, which removes the distortion. However the colors still remain dull and flat.

On this image the cameras flash was used. This has improved the colors of the book dust jacket. However because it was taken over head there is a considerable flash spot which obscures most of the image.

This image was taken from an angle, which corrects the flash problem from the previous image. However, this now presents another flaw. The front edge of the book is curved, which is a product of the camera lens being too close to the book when the photograph was taken.

Moving away from the book and then zooming in corrects the distortion from the previous image. However, you will notice that some of the detail is lost and the colors are dull and flat, almost on the point of looking washed out. Point to remember is that when zooming in on an image; use the cameras optical zoom, not the digital zoom. Digital zoom tends to degrade the picture.

You will see some images that have been scanned, like this one. In some aspects they are better; there is almost no distortion and details are crisp, certainly where the book lays flat on the scanner. However, scanning produces its own flaws. The colors are off and the spine of the book looks blurred and out of focus, caused by a lack of depth of field. The other point to consider is that this image is two dimensional, unlike a book and therefore does not show the book in its best light.

By placing the book on a black poster board there is no background competing with the book and focuses the attention on what you are selling. The book looks as it should, three dimensional and there is no distortion as the spine is at the front, which draws the eyes. This image is not acceptable yet though and still has no oomph. But this is the base line that you will need to take it to the next level, to make it an exceptional photo. This is where image editing comes in and hopefully the next picture will convince you of the benefit.

With a little image editing we have a finished image that will sell your books time and time again. Details and colors are clear, crisp and full of life and the image leaps off the page. The background is exactly that and does not compete with the book. If you think that you are deceiving the buyer by image manipulation, remember that it is not wrong to take an initial picture and then improve it, so long as the final edited image closely resembles the book.

Black backgrounds are usually the best, but it can depend on the color of the book. It may look better on white or brown, depending on the contrast. Experiment with different colors, poster board is cheap and a little time and effort spent on getting the photograph right will pay dividends later. In this image a border has been added, which helps to lift the picture from the background material, giving a more true life appearance So there we have it, how not to photograph your books and what a finished product should and could look like if you take a little time and effort. These tips will hopefully help you achieve a sale.

This only covers the very basics. In Part 2 we will cover other aspects of photographing books that will further enhance and help you. This will cover unique selling points, interiors of the book such as illustrations and how to invoke appeal to the buyer.

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