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Fantasy broadband league

Posted on 27 Jul 2005 at 17:12

Davey Winder goes in search of the perfect picture and joins the broadband elite

Of course, as I concluded in my client report, the safest way to avoid inappropriate material is to filter access on a local basis using something like CYBERsitter (www.cybersitter.com) or Net Nanny (www.netnanny.com), but that said, if you want to do away with adult content from online image searches, Picsearch is hard to beat. All that's left is the small matter of abiding by copyright law in your use of the images you do find...

In search of the perfect picture

Sticking with an imaging theme, I have been contemplating exactly what sells on eBay. I do not mean what type of goods, because, let's face it, if someone can find a buyer for a Tesco carrier bag willing to pay £15 for it, it is obvious anything can sell. However, some things sell better than others, and the key differentiator as far as I can see is presentation. There are all sorts of software aids, HTML sales templates and even entrepreneurial third parties who will write your descriptions for you, but if like an increasing number of people you treat eBay as a serious business, the weakest link is likely to be the photography.

How many times have you seen an attention-grabbing description on eBay, only to be put off by the lack of a photo or, worse still, by an out-of-focus and badly lit image? No photo at all suggests the seller has something to hide, while a poor picture suggests they are trying to obscure the true state of the goods. Unfortunately, the truth could be as simple as that the seller is a crap photographer. It is unlikely the margins are big enough for you to run to hiring the services of a professional snapper, so anything that can help blur the boundaries between one of them and one of you has to be a good thing.

I recently took the opportunity to ask the advice of one such pro and he advised that the biggest problem is always lighting, or more precisely control over both the available light and any associated reflections. Such things are easy to deal with in a properly setup studio environment, but less so when the item you are photographing is propped up against a bit of white paper on your kitchen table.

I have been aware of Flexion Solutions (www.flexionsolutions.co.uk) and its Cubelite 'portable studio system' for some time. These white nylon cube enclosures provide even lighting every time when used properly, but they are priced out of the reach of all but the most serious would-be eBay tycoon. Which is why I was rather glad to get a press release about Flexion Solutions' new product, the ePhotomaker kit (www.ephotomaker.co.uk). I have been using this in the larger of the two available sizes, which folds into an almost flat kitbag for storage.

What you get in the kit is a collapsible, white nylon, open-fronted dome tent into which the item to be photographed is placed, a grey Ezybalance light card, a mini-tripod, blue daylight filter film and a couple of double-ended clips. To this you need to add a light source (those clampable, spring-balanced, Anglepoise-style desk lamps are perfect) and a digital camera. The dome does a fine job of diffusing the light, and the fact that one of its interior panels is reflective totally removes the risk of shadows spoiling things.

Most desk lamps use a tungsten or other incandescent bulb that produces a light with a slightly yellow hue, so the blue daylight film is used to compensate for this and as a bonus produces a more natural daylight feel with less colour cast. The grey card is useful for those fully automatic cameras that lack a manual white-balance mode - by using a half-shutter-press to lock both focus and exposure readings from the card you end up with a pretty good balance. The only thing that I, as a most non-professional photographer, had to remember was to turn off the flash. Other than that, whether using just the white of the nylon enclosure or a piece of smooth coloured card for the background, I can get perfect and professional-looking product shots every time.

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