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BUDGET PHOTO SECRETS
Photographing small objects for eBay without a close-up lens
By David Gewirtz
If you sell things on eBay, you know that physically small items often sell for good money, especially if they're collectable. You also know that displaying a picture of what you're selling is an important tactic, since the photo (or photos) gives buyers a much better sense of the actual item you're selling.
Most modern digital cameras have what's called "macro" mode. This is a feature of the camera that lets you take close-up pictures, like the one shown in Figure A.
FIGURE A
 
If I wanted to sell my cherished Hot Wheels car, I'd need to get a close-up shot. Roll over picture for a larger image.
The lens has to have some special attributes to allow you to get close to the image and get a tight shot. The picture shown above was taken with a macro lens.
But what if you don't have a macro lens or a camera that's got a close-up or macro mode? Sure, you could just go out and buy another camera, but even if you've just got a regular snapshot lens, you can still take pictures of small objects and post them on eBay.
The secret is megapixels
As with many digital photography tricks, the secret is knowing that your camera can take a much larger picture than you will likely need to post on eBay. For example, the macro-shot picture shown above is 640 pixels across, more than enough for an eBay posting.
Let's talk about lenses again. With a macro lens, you put your camera just inches away from the subject and shoot the picture. The entire photo captured to your memory card is of your subject. But without a macro lense, you've generally got to be at least two or three feet away from your subject to get a good, clean shot.
Nearly all cameras take pictures whose final size is well more than 640 pixels across. For example, my wife has a Casio camera that shoots at 6 megapixels. Most cameras you'd buy today will shoot pictures that are, at least, 4 megapixels. You can even do what I'm about to show you with an older 2 megapixel camera.
To understand this very simple process, take a look at Figure B.
FIGURE B
 
This is the same layout as the previous picture, just taken from about 4 feet away. Roll over picture for a larger image.
What you're looking at is the same layout as the previous picture, just taken from about 4 feet away. To be easily viewable by you, dear reader, I've reduced the image to 640 pixels across. But the thing to really understand is that the image was originally 3,072 pixels across by 2,048 pixels down.
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