@oddsandendsoz wrote:
Thanks for the replies. I probably did not explain what i menat very well on the templates. I rather meant it seems that some sellers must have a background image (often just plain white or other effect) to which the item seems to be superimposed over it in some ways which gives the photos a consistency which I like but was unsure how you do this? Is this in photoshop or something?
I do something like this for my photos - on eBay, I use either plain white or black backgrounds. For white, I bought some glossy acrylic sheets, for black I bought some thick, matte card. The black background images need very little editing, but I add textures to the white background items.
Usually it's just to brighten the white background, so I actually add a plain white texture to it, but a little translucent so it keeps the shadows and it still looks natural. On another site, though, I use a different background in all of the gallery images.
I nabbed a digital image that had a CC license for commercial use, altered it a bit, and use that as a background texture which is added after all other editing using an online site called iPiccy, which is free, but imperfect. (I used to use Picmonkey, which was better in some ways, worse in others, but although I had been a paid subscriber of PM, they decided they would no longer offer any features for free and the way the went about it lost me as a site user forever - if you're willing to pay for the service, though, PicMonkey in comparison has better features, but crashes more often).
It's a pretty simple process, and can take a minute or two per image if the item is just a simple shape / block, but can take much longer (for me) if item is more intricate, because the way I do it is upload the background image as a texture, and use the paint brush to either add or remove it from anything that is not the item (I keep it light and translucent still, so even though anyone looking twice at the photos would see the background has been added digitally, there's still visible shadows making it look at first like it was a natural photo backdrop.
Other methods are things like buying or printing a backdrop and acheiving consistency that way - if you print a backdrop, I recommend adhering it to something so you can place a little distance from the item. Putting it under glass can also create a nice effect, but you need good lighting (which I don't have, so all my "magic" happens in editing).
these don't show up on the glossy white acrylic, and unlike the board, there is no visible texture to acrylic which is an advantage when you add your own).
