Donate to the Lead Adventure Forum to keep it alive!
Not all us go into the business looking to grow to the size of GW
Just as annoying as no pictures are tiny thumbnails that when you click on them to enlarge them, are still tiny thumbnails
Good grief at the low quality apologetics:it's too much of work to cast all the pieces – no it isn't, it's called YOUR JOB! it's too much of work to photograph all the pieces – firstly it's called YOUR JOB; secondly eBayers and online auctioners routinely take hundreds and thousands of unique photos in improvised conditions in addition to their day jobs, family life and other daily chores, whereas sellers would need to take the stock photos only once per item type, would do it during their work hours and could arrange for a dedicated photo setup at their non-residential work placefulfilling orders takes all the time – if the amount of gold and silver coming through doors and windows is felt overwhelming, a cheapo teen/summer help assistant or two will relieve one of physical work while not impacting too much the money flow (or perhaps even allowing for doubling or tripling the income).How about two or three people? History has taught us great things can happen with that size of a crew (link).
Good grief at the low quality apologetics:it's too much of work to cast all the pieces – no it isn't, it's called YOUR JOB! it's too much of work to photograph all the pieces – firstly it's called YOUR JOB; secondly eBayers and online auctioners routinely take hundreds and thousands of unique photos in improvised conditions in addition to their day jobs, family life and other daily chores, whereas sellers would need to take the stock photos only once per item type, would do it during their work hours and could arrange for a dedicated photo setup at their non-residential work placefulfilling orders takes all the time – if the amount of gold and silver coming through doors and windows is felt overwhelming, a cheapo teen/summer help assistant or two will relieve one of physical work while not impacting too much the money flow (or perhaps even allowing for doubling or tripling the income).Now, the Mithril Medallion of Selfless Service to Mankind goes to all those bloggers, forum writers and wiki creators who answer online inquiries about various miniature lines, take size comparison shots and post detailed close-up shots. Some folks are even known to paint the miniature models (no joke) to showcase their potential for beauty of secondary creation. All those people are doing the merchants' work by voluntarily practising elementary level businessman craft – while not getting paid a penny for it. How about two or three people? History has taught us great things can happen with that size of a crew (link). How about tiny thumbnails in webshops that are linked into even smaller images?
Not every small wargames business wants to grow past one person.
Doing so nowadays requires obligations in the UK of sorting out workplace pensions and such
and therefore employing even one person (in addition to the owner) is going to be a non-starter if all the owner wants is a steady income and steady volume of work.
I'm in the unusual position where I have taken on Mike's old range of 15mm figures that he never had time to re-photograph in 12 years. It's more than 800 codes that need casting before they can be photographed.
The vast number of unsatisfactory images on eBay show there is a difference between banging out images for a site full of tat or knock-offs and taking photographs that are commercially acceptable on a business website. What you've done its simply cite a source of unrelentingly dire pictures
So that gives the lie to the statement that "you only need to take stock photos once".
The wargames industry as a whole frequently demonstrates its inability to take good product shots
as part of "my job" I will indeed be working on new photographs
A full catalogue of pictures is a bonus
A decade to a decade and a half ago I was buying 28mm WSS figures by the box load. Those figures are the majority of my "lead mountain." I was heaving them onto yet another storage shelf after yet another move just last weekend. When I bought them the photos on the manufacturer's websites ranged from:1. Foundry - great photos of painted minis2. Front Rank - great photos of both painted and unpainted minis3. Old Glory - difficult to see photos of unpainted minis, but adequate4. Dixon - no or few photos, actually ordered a few samples first!5. Imperialist Enterprises - no website, but drawings on mailed paper6. Irregular - no drawings or photos that I remember, and no website?I also used to buy 1:2400 scale WW1 ships, sometimes with no photo from C-in -C or Viking Forge or WTJ.But that was OK for then. And now I have my big "lead mountain." Now I only buy a few figures for Pulp on rare occasion. No more massed armies for me. And no more buying figures without photos. If I ever buy anymore 28mm WSS again, it will be from Ebor, a company that shows adequate photos. And any further WW1 ships will be from WTJ, which has enough photos to give me an idea of quality.
While doing it at once would be great, taking pics of unphotographed figures as they are ordered would be a start. You can do it with a phone camera and a glossy light blue piece of paper for the back ground. It will take a while, but its a start.
Again, such pictures are not of commercially acceptable quality. There is no point taking pictures of unprepared figures: detail is next to impossible to see. This is the sort of photograph that prompts the response from customers of "Do you have better photographs?".