The Photographs That Sell and the Ones That Do Not

Sellers worry about equipment. Buyers are not comparing your photographs to a magazine, they are trying to work out what they would receive, and most listings fail at that rather than at anything artistic.

Show the actual item

The single most useful photograph is the plain one. The thing itself, well lit, the whole of it in frame. Everything else is decoration on top of that, and decoration without it just raises questions.

Light beats gear

A window on an overcast day is better than any lamp you own and better than most cameras in a dark room. If a photograph looks wrong and you cannot say why, it is usually the light.

Include the boring angles

The label, the fastening, the sole, whatever the specific detail is. Buyers who are about to spend money look for the detail that tells them the item is real and is the one described. Missing it is what makes people ask three questions before ordering.

Consistency reads as competence

A shop where every photograph is framed the same way looks run. It does not need to be elaborate. The same surface and the same light, every time, does more for how a shop reads than any single good picture.