In this article, Vinterior will offer suggestions on how to create great pictures for your listings and make sure that you maximise your sales thanks to your pictures: “We don’t sell furniture; we sell photographs”
Subjects treated in this article:
- Image quality
- Image lighting
- Image background
- Colour accuracy
- Warping
- Reflections
- Video tutorial
Image quality
DO’s
- The images should be big enough that the user can zoom at least 3 times.
- The buyer should be able to feel the texture like they would touch a piece of furniture as they are in a vintage shop.
- The smaller size of the picture should have at least 1,200 pixels for the zoom to be good enough.
- The best quality images on Vinterior tend to have a size of more than 0.5 MB.
DON’Ts
- Avoid low-resolution pictures, blurry and over-exposition of light.
- Important details can be missed if the image is not clear enough.
Image lighting
DO’s
- Use 2 lights or more to brighten the sides of the item photographed.
- Make sure the colours are realistic.
DON’Ts
- Avoid reflections and distracting shadows.
Image background
DO’s
Background of photographs should be either:
- Plain & clear studio-like
- Detoured and whited out
- Staged with a few accessories
DON’T
- Avoid taking photographs in an outdoor/garden area, even if the light is good.
- Avoid taking pictures in your shop, among other items that would distract from the main item on sale.
- Avoid having too many items in the background (if these don’t add anything to the picture).
Colour accuracy
DO’s
- Depending on the device used to take pictures, colours can vary and perception can be altered.
- Especially with wood, nuances of orange/brown would look different.
- One of the main reasons for return is because the item does not look like the pictures on the website.
- Use a photographer’s grey card to be able to correct pictures in post-production.
Image warping
DO’s
- Depending on the lens used, the item photographed might be distorted.
- It is important to use a high lens, starting at 35mm to avoid any distortion.
- In this example, the top part of the sideboard is not the same length as the bottom part of the length because of the use of a small value lens.
- Tutorial
Reflections
DO’s
- Mirrors should be photographed with a reflection on a clear/whitewall or edited post-production to have a uniformised reflection.
DON’T
- Avoid having any distracting reflections in the mirror photographed including human being taking the pictures, flash of the camera, or another piece of furniture that might mislead the buyer.
TUTORIALS ON HOW TO MAKE THE BEST PICTURES
Set up, Lighting & Shooting
Editing & Post-production
Colouring & variations