A picture is worth a thousand words. When selling items online on auction sites such as eBay this saying becomes more relevant. A picture is worth money and a lot of money. A good set of pictures can make the difference between an item that is sold and an item that is not sold. It can also make a big difference in the highest bid price received for an item.

It is not enough to just to take a photo of an item. A good photo can raise the value of the item and help sell it. This article provides a few rules to follow in order to take better photos of such items.

The first rule when taking photos of an item is to take more than one photo. Show the item from many angles show it zoomed in and zoomed out in different positionsfor example if the item is a car show it with doors closed and with doors open. If it is a DVD show the front cover the back and the disc itself.

The quality of the photos must be as high as possible. Make sure that you have the right lighting. It is always better to take photos during the day time with natural light rather than with flash light. It is also better to take pictures when there is overcast rather than when the skies are clear and the sun light is strong. If the skies are clear try to take the photos either at the beginning or the end of the day. Follow the rules of good photography, use a tripod if long exposure is needed make sure the photo is not overexposed or underexposed and that it is not blurry.

When taking the photo make sure that you stage the right background for the item. Usually you would want to stage a background that is in contrast with the item and that has no details or interesting objects that can steal the viewer's attention. Also make sure that the background is a matte color and that it does not reflect light. For example when taking a photo of a black computer mouse and keyboard use a white or light gray background.

Emphasize the value and the details of the item. Every item has unique features or important details that you would like to draw the viewer's attention to. The best way to do that is to take close-up photos of those details. For example when selling a car that has very low mileage take a close-up photo of its odometer. Another example when selling a known brand product such as shirts or pants take a close-up photo of the tag or the logo to emphasize that the item is genuine.

Take photos that support the textual description of the item. For example when selling a high end brand purse if the description says "perfect stitches" take a close-up photo of the stitches to prove that the description is right.

If your item size is important you can use a known size object in order to help the viewer visualize the item's size. For example when selling a miniature spy camera take one photo of the camera side by side with an object such as a quarter or a matchbox. The viewer will find it much easier to visualize the camera's size when looking at such a photo rather than reading the camera's measurements.

And last but not least remember to keep the photo file size small. When viewing a photo on the user's screen a low resolution is more than enough. In most cases a VGA (640X480) picture is all that it takes and such a photo can be as small as 50Kbytes. It is important to keep this in mind and not be tempted to put high resolution photos that are big. Such big files load very slowly on the viewer's computer. In most cases the viewer will get frustrated and would just skip to the next seller.