Photographing rare books for auction

It is never a good idea to start any article with a tired old cliche, 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 todays 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 woe full 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 or 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 luster 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 you time with your eyes 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. To view this article with step by step images visit bid4abook.co.uk

John Harvey has been an avid collector of rare and antique books for several years. In 2005 he started up his own antique and rare book auction site bid4abook.co.uk. The site is free for buyers and sellers of books.