Unless you are a professional photographer, you have the best camera you have ever owned in your pocket. There is no excuse for posting a bad picture when trying to sell comic books online. The quality of the photo used to sell a comic book online can be different in whether you can get the price you want or sell it at all.

Go to the most popular and respected comic book websites to see how the professionals do it. You will never see sloppy, out of focus pictures at Marvel or DC’s websites. You won’t see a comic book propped up on the bathroom sink, at an odd angle, or with a shadow draped across the title.

Tips for Taking Great Comic Book Photos

 If you are an American living in the second decade of the 21st century, chances are you are reading this on a cell phone or tablet that also has a high-quality camera. The first iterations of cell phone cameras produced blurry, pixelated images that often looked more like animation than a real photo. Now, you can take portrait-style professional-looking photos or shoot, edit, and publish a full-length feature film, all from your smartphone or tablet.   

The point is, if you have an iPhone or Android phone, you have all you need to take high-quality photos of your most treasured comic books. The following tips will help you get the most out of your comic book photos:

Take Your Own Pics

It can be easy to search for the comic book you are selling and find an image on Google Photos you can use. Don’t be lazy. Sacrifice the time to take your own photos of your own items. They will be consistent throughout your collection and you control the content. Plus, the pictures you find on Google are not really yours for the taking. You have a great camera on your phone. Use it.

Get Up Close and Personal

Another lazy note. Relying on the zoom function of your phone or post-production editing will decrease the quality of the digital photo. For the clearest image get as close to the comic book as possible evenly framing it to fill up the screen.

See the Light

Lighting is crucial. You do not need expensive or professional kits to properly light a single comic book. Just make sure the light is evenly distributed throughout, with no glare or shadows. Natural light works best as long as it is sunny and the sunlight is consistent. A lamp or other artificial light will also work. Take some practice shots and make necessary adjustments to get the perfect shot.

Clean the Lens

When you wipe down your phone, do you remember to wipe off the camera lens on the back? Yeah, that’s what we thought. Especially considering how close to the subject you are getting, the smallest of smudges or dust on the lens can result in a large imperfection in the photo. Take a dry cloth to the lens between each product to ensure you are getting the clearest shot possible.

Photo Background, or That’s a Load of Crop

When it comes to the background for individually photographed comic books, less is more. The best-looking images are cropped tight with sharp corners revealing little or no background at all. A black or white patternless background is suggested if they show at all.

Lights… Camera… Action Comics Pictures!

The cover of a comic book is an overriding deciding factor when it comes to sales and collections. Presenting the cover of an item up for sale in the best light, literally and figuratively, will give that item a far better chance of selling at the asking price. 

Talk to us about helping with your social media marketing. We are intrackt.com and comicecom.com.