Why I Decided to Stop Editing My Photos

6 Minute Read

Why Did I Decide to Stop Editing?

This was a tough decision. But it was one I’ve been trying to decide on for many months now. I went back and forth about it for some time, and finally came to the conclusion that I would go ahead and give it a try. What did I have to lose after all?

I had nothing to lose, actually. And by editing my photographs individually (yes, one at a time), I was in turn losing oodles of my much needed time. When you get further into your business, no matter what it may be, you have to make decisions. I mean, yes, you are always making decisions, but sometimes they’re just a little harder than others.

Making the Decision

Well, I decided to stop editing those individual pics, because I determined it was just too much of a time sucker. I know, I know, so many resellers out there, (including myself), talk about the dire importance of having top notch clear and crisp pictures.

However, as the saying goes, “perfection is the enemy of progress.” Ain’t that the truth. I have been so set for over 2 years now, on making my pictures so perfectly white and crisp and bright, that I am wasting precious hours of time a day working on this.

At some point, you have to ask yourself. Is it worth it? Am I selling more just because my pictures are slightly brighter than someone else’s? If this is something you’re more worried about, you may need to take a second look at your inventory.

I say this because, maybe you’re not picking up the right items, or maybe you’re picking up good items, and they’re just sitting for awhile. Nowadays, I’m all about that turnover rate. I’ve been working really hard the last few months on streamlining my business just as much as possible, and this was a part of it.

Why Not Hire an Editor?

Guess what? I tried this, too. No bueno. At least for me, that is. This could totally work for you, if you were willing to give it a shot! But, I just wasn’t having the best of luck with an assistant to edit for me.

I had to upload a bunch of pics to Google Drive, then wait for them to download, then wait for the editor to get them back to me, then download them again. Yeah, that was a bunch of time involved, and honestly, I could have just done it faster myself, so I continued doing so.

Plus, when I got the pictures back from the editor, they looked absolutely fabulous…but sometimes the hanger was cut off, or a picture looked weird, what have you. And I’m really digging my hanger these days, as I found one on Etsy that is wooden and that I was able to get engraved with my business name! So cool. They have a few different options, but I ended up with a brown and white one. I thought I’d prefer the brown one like the one I’d used prior, but the white looked super clean and professional. You can find their shop here.

How Are Things Going Since Not Editing?

Well, quite magnificent actually! It’s funny because I’m realizing as I track my sales, that a lot of the items selling, are the ones without a perfect background. I mean, my older listings are of course trickling into my sales as well, but I was a little shocked at the fact that not editing really didn’t make that much of a difference. If you are doing good research, and sourcing good items, those sales will still come.

This goes for hanging pictures of garments or bags, and also with photo box pictures. The photo box does have a lighting system in it, which makes it pretty bright and white already. Plus, for the items that are being hanged, I have two large box lights that I keep as close as possible to make sure I don’t collect any shadows in my pics. You can find the light set here, and a great photo box here, if you are interested in finding one you like for yourself!

***UPDATE: Guys. I’m sure most of you already knew this, but sometimes I come a little late to the party! I just figured out while listing on eBay, that you can actually remove the background on your pictures to make it completely white! This is a game changer.

This eliminates any other apps you would have to use, or VAs you would need to hire to do so. You can do this yourself, and it literally takes seconds. I have been applying this quick fix to (only) my cover photo, as the whole point of this post was to amplify the time saving factor.

Please comment below if you have anything to add or to chat about this great feature eBay provides us sellers! Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for more great info and updates on the regular. -Shelby

Summary

What I’m trying to say in this post, is that perfection is not always completely necessary. Of course you want your listings to look nice and clean, you are a business after all. And I definitely think in the beginning if you are just starting out, that you should be editing.

I am currently listing 20 items per day on eBay, and that makes for a lot of individual pictures. However, when I was only listing 3-5 daily, it was much easier and certainly less time consuming to edit those then. I was also much worse at determining which items would turnover quick, because once you have more knowledge, it is much easier to decide what to pick up and what to leave behind.

This probably means that you are going to want some top notch pictures to compete with others when you’re starting out, because you may be listing mediocre items, but perhaps the picture quality can still entice potential customers. But when you’re further into streamlining your business and scaling to make tasks quicker and easier for yourself, this may not be as necessary.

Your items are probably fetching a higher turnover rate, because you consistently pick up better and better items, so making sure your pictures are very good, instead of perfect, may just be good enough to keep those sales rolling in. Don’t give yourself a headache spending hours upon hours hitting the same button when you could be doing something more beneficial to running your business successfully.

Thank You!

A giant thanks to everyone that has supported me this far into my journey! I greatly appreciate you returning to read my posts hope that you will continue to drop by in the future.

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Happy selling friends!

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