Photographs That Answer the Question

A buyer looking at a listing is asking a small number of specific questions, and a photograph either answers them or it does not. Most sets are beautiful and answer almost none of them.

Show the thing, then show the detail

One clear image of the whole item, lit plainly, against something that is not busy. Then the parts a buyer would examine if it were in front of them: the fastening, the sole, the label, the wear. The wide shot sells the idea and the close ones settle the doubt.

Give a sense of size without a tape measure

Scale is the first thing a photograph loses. An item held, worn, or set beside something ordinary reads instantly in a way that dimensions in the description never quite manage, even when the dimensions are right there and correct.

Do not hide the condition

Marks, wear and repairs photograph better than they read. A buyer who sees the scuff in the listing has decided about it before ordering. A buyer who finds it in the parcel has been surprised, and surprise is what complaints are made of, not imperfection.

Keep the light dull and consistent

Daylight near a window, no direct sun, the same spot every time. Colour is the most common thing to be wrong about, and a shop where every listing is lit the same way looks like one shop rather than a collection of unrelated finds.

Cut the ones that add nothing

Six photographs that each show something different beat fourteen showing the same angle in different moods. Anything that answers no question is asking the buyer to keep scrolling, and some of them will not.