Everything that decides a card's price is visible, and almost none of it survives a flat, front-lit photograph.
The shot that sells
Front, square on, filling the frame, in even daylight. Clean and simple — this is the identification shot.
The shot that prevents the dispute
The card tilted under side light. Surface scratches, print lines and whitening appear only when the light runs across the card rather than at it.
The list
- Front, square on, for identification
- Back, square on — centring and staining show there first
- Tilted under side light, front and back
- All four corners, close
- The edges, especially on dark borders
- For graded cards: the label, readable, and the slab for cracks
Light
Daylight, indirect. No flash — it bounces straight back off a holo surface and gives you a white hole where the card was.
For the tilt shot, put the light low and to one side and angle the card until the surface texture appears. Move the card, not the light.
Squareness
Shoot straight down with the card parallel to the camera. A card photographed at an angle looks mis-centred when it is not, and buyers will say so.
What goes wrong
Holding the card in a hand that moves, shooting through a sleeve with glare, and photographing the one angle where the corner looks sharp. Common mistakes.
Questions people ask
Should I take the card out of the sleeve?
For valuable cards, photograph it both ways — sleeve glare hides exactly what buyers look for.
Is a phone good enough?
Yes, with daylight and a steady hand. Light matters far more than the camera.
What about measuring a card on camera?
Worth doing for anything valuable and raw. What cards are worth.
More: selling cards, how they are graded.