With new great photography gear improving faster than our wallets can keep up with, it’s always smart to sell our older equipment when upgrading to a newer, better one. But in doing so, it would be even better to get a fair price for the things we paid hard earned cash for not so long ago.
By using your own photography skills, you’ll discover that having a good photograph of the item you’re selling online will get you a fair, if not great, market price. The key is to take good product shots as if you’re creating an actual ad for a product because you are doing just that. Treat your older model camera as if you were taking a studio shot of it.
With things you most likely already have at home, and a few more helpful tips, you can start commanding reasonable prices that won’t make you think twice about the depreciation of value of your equipment and will make you feel less guilty when you move on to your next upgrade.
Just follow these 5 easy steps for taking great product shots for your used photography equipment.
1. Use a plain backdrop to avoid background distractions . If you have a plain white cloth or a white poster board, as long as it’s clean, you can keep reusing it for each product shot you take for many years. Black cloth is even better. You won’t have to worry about dirt, as long as your background complements the color contrast of your product.
2. Only include all the accessories that you’re willing to part with in the sale of the product. When you buy anything, always keep in mind that you might be reselling it a year or so from the time you bought it. Remember to always keep the manual and basically everything that came with the package.
3. Take a separate picture of the box if you still have it. When selling your used gear, your chances of getting a better price for your item is better when you sell it with its original packaging. Having a place in your home to store the boxes of the equipment you plan to sell when you’re ready for a new one will help you in the future.
4. Make use of any available lighting you have at home. Any simple table lamp would suffice and a white cardboard would give you the fill you need for a good shot. You can even make a simple light tent with old boxes you have lying around. This would give you the perfect shadowless product shots you’ll need to get top dollar for your item.
5. Take close up shots and full shots of the product. It won’t cost you extra to post several shots in an online ad as long as it’s within the limit. Show as much detail of the product as possible in your close-up shots. For any normal wear and tear, make sure it’s evident that potential buyers will see that it’s nothing more than superficial scratches.
Tags: dispose camera equipment, sell camera gear, shoot used camera gear, used camera gear images
your valuable equipment. Unfortunately, it is during this time that you require the use of your camera more often since the holidays fall in the winter months.Here are some helpful ways to protect your camera gear from harsh weather conditions:
Avoid condensation- condensation or water moisture appears when you expose your camera to the cold elements and then enter a warm area. Try not to change your lens during cold conditions. To protect your camera, place it in a carrying case when not in use. When you are going to shoot outdoors, having your camera in a protective casing ensures that its response to the change of temperature is gradual. Leave a couple of dehumidifier packets inside your camera bag. Another tip to lessen condensation from showing up in your camera is to place it in a plastic freezer bag once you get in from the cold. This will make the moisture form on the bag instead of the camera.
Protect your hands while taking shots – it can be difficult to work outdoors in cold weather because it can usually numb your fingers. Using gloves may keep our hands warm but they can be awkward once you start to take pictures. To have better maneuverability for your fingers, you can use soft thin gloves and mitts over them, preferably those with flaps at the tips so you can quickly access your fingers when you are ready to shoot.
Another thing to consider is that with digital cameras coming out every so often with more and more options to lure even non-photography enthusiasts, we always want to upgrade our current DSLR camera to newer, better ones. One way to assure you get top dollar for reselling your old camera is to get added protection for it. UV filters does just that. It keeps the front lens in mint condition. All things considered, it can even increase image quality compared to an unfiltered lens since it can be replaced when it starts to affect the quality of an image. 
to a scene. For example, when weather conditions are cloudy, you can instead make it seem like the sun is setting and have the scene appear with a warm yellowish hue. 
entering the lens. A polarizer from a wide angle lens, a couple of filters on a lens or a filter with a lens hood can also cause vignetting. A solution to these issues is to use filters bigger than the lens’ screw in thread. For example, use a 62mm filter for a 58mm lens and attach it with a step-up ring. 
SLR cameras. The diameter of a screw-on filter corresponds to the diameter of the camera lens. There are also step-up or step-down adapters that can be used for different filter sizes. Remember that step-down adapters can cause vignetting since the filter can block light at the edges of the lens while step-up adapters can be a hindrance for a camera that requires a smaller filter. 
The blend can also be radial to add or eradicate light fall-off at the edge of the lens’ edges, or more commonly known as vignette. 
pe of GND filter you use. One company’s soft edge can sometime be as abrupt as another company’s hard edge. It’s a trial and error when using the filter to determine the precise outcome.
