RichFX Media acquired by ChannelAdvisor
July 16, 2008
ChannelAdvisor have acquired RichFX Media, a company specialising in advanced media and graphics with the aim of increasing clicks and conversion rates on ecommerce sites.
ChannelAdvisor will be offering three new products, RichImage, RichCatalog and RichCircular, as well as offering their own multi-channel management tools to existing RichFX customers.
RichImage enables zooms, alternative views, color swatching and 360 degree rotations of products (Lego are an existing RichFX customer with a great example of RichImage technology). Any tool that enables prospective buyers to engage and interact with their prospective purchase naturally drives more sales and RichImage is a winner.
RichCatalog enables merchants to convert existing print catalogues into an online asset. A virtual catalogue is created even to the extent of animated page flipping. RichCircular enables regional newsletters to be published online enabling prospective customers to view circulars from different regions.
It looks like ChannelAdvisor have got themselves a bargain, reports suggest the price paid was around $3.1m with RichFX having burnt through some $60m in funding.
Internet shoppers are becoming more demanding and expect better information and product shots than in the past, and RichImage is set to be a great differentiator for ChannelAdvisor clients.
Photobucket to offer in-browser image editing
March 5, 2008
TechCrunch report that from tomorrow, Photobucket will offer in-browser image editing courtesy of FotoFlexer. Photobucket users will be able to rotate, resize, decorate and distort pictures live on the site.
If you’re currently paying eBay for photo hosting, and don’t have your own web space, Photobucket’s free service is great for storing up to 1 GB of photos, and if you need more than that, their Pro account offers a huge chunk of hosting at a very competitive price.
Bling!It now available for Mac
January 16, 2008
If you’re a Mac user, we owe you an apology: all the excitement everyone else was having blinging everything from their stock to their cats before Christmas must have been extremely annoying when the software was only available for PC. So there’s good news for you today: you can now get your own 15 day free trial of this fabulous software. It’s been getting a great response at Macworld, and that’s hardly surprising: when you can go from ordinary to extraordinary photos in just a few clicks, it has to be worth a trial.
Bling!ing marvelous!
December 14, 2007
I’ve had great fun playing with Bling! It, the software which transforms ordinary product shots into extrodinary images. I thought I was doing quite well and then along came Lynne from Josordoni Collectables with her entry for the Bling! It competition.
Lynne started with a product shot she described as “not bad, certainly good enough for eBay” and finished with a superb product image that wouldn’t look out of place in any manufacturer’s catalogue.
Lynne explained just how
simple it was to use Bling! It to create the new image “The only extras other than stripping out the background and putting my own in and adding the shadow was to use the highlighter tool to add in some extra light to simulate light coming from the “sun” at the top. Shame that makes the shadow the wrong way round, but hey! it’s allowed coz its ART!”
It’s a superb result and shows just how powerful Bling! It is and how anyone can create amazing images for use on eBay or their own website, easily and in seconds. Lynne simply used the sky from a holiday photo to create the new background which has made a fantastic backdrop for the product.
If you want a copy of Bling! It, download a 15 day trial and enter the competition to win one of 20 copies of Bling! It on TameBay. The competition ends on Wednesday and you could be transforming your product shots like Lynne, if you’re one of the winners. If not Bling! It only costs about £30 so it’s an absolute bargain and worth every penny.
You can see the other competition entries in the TameBay Forum.
TameBay competition news
December 10, 2007
Competitions are the name of the game this month, not only are Bling! It and TameBay offering you the chance to win 1 of 20 copies of Bling! It! but 3mobilebuzz is offering the chance to win one, two or even three Skypephones!
Entries are already coming in for the Bling! It competition and you can see some of them in the TameBay forum. I’m particularly impressed with the superb product shot of a trainer which took hopecouture just 45 seconds to create.
However someone has gone one better, Jade has won the “Bling! of the Month” with their entry into the Bling! It competition and has already won a free copy of the Bling! It software. Steve Nelson of Bling! It told us “We feel Jade has truly captured the way in which Bling! It can transform product shots. The finished result looks great!”
Hopecouture are spreading their wings and have also entered the 3mobilebuzz competition with a novel entry. They’re using eBay Matchups comparing the 3 Skypephone to the iPhone, Skype on a PC, expensive Mobile Phone Bills and even using the 3 Skypephone vs emailing an eBay seller.
Meanwhile Dave has been reading TameBay, heard about the 3mobilebuzz competition and submitted a video entry hosted on vzaar. He’s so keen to win he’s even scrapped his old Nokia in the hope of receiving a shiny new Skypephone!
3mobilebuzzcomp1
There’s still time for you to enter both competitions, the 3 Skypephone competition ends on Monday 17th December and the Bling! It competition closes for entries on Wednesday 19th December.
Competition: You Gotta Bling! It to Win It!
December 3, 2007
Last week we blogged about Bling! It, the revolutionary photo editing software that will have you transforming ordinary product shots into extraordinary ones – and fast!
Today, Bling! It and TameBay have joined forces to offer you the chance to win 1 of 20 copies of Bling! It!
Total competition prize value is $999!!
All you need to enter the competition is download the 15 day trial version of Bling! It, install it on your machine and start Bling!ing your product shots. Entries will be published in the TameBay Forum on the TameBay Flickr stream and on the Bling! It blog and can be linked to your eBay shop or website if you wish. It’s a great opportunity not only to win some fantastic software but also to get traffic to your products.
Competition Objective
To take an ordinary product shot, one you would use on your own eBay shop, and use Bling! It to delete the background and drop in a new one. You can be as creative as you want to be, here’s an example for you:
Comment:
I selected as much of the background as I could with the Red Brush (Delete Local Brush), I then used the Blue Brush (Blend Exact Brush) and painted round the fluffy parts of these barrel cleaners.
Then I selected a background from the Bling! It Library – I could’ve used my own or designed one in Bling! It but this background I thought looked best.
I then Sharpened the image a little – look at the difference between the brass bases! Then I added a little shadowing and lowered the Intensity of the shadow to make it barely visible and saved the file!
Submission Rules
Submissions should be sent to chris@tamebay.com
Each submission to include one “Before Bling!” and one “After Bling!” image, accompanied by a short comment about the Bling! It software
Bling! It and TameBay will pick 20 winners who will each win a full licensed copy of Bling! It (RRP $49.95 plus VAT)
Total value of this competition is $999!
Submission Deadline Wednesday 19th December 2007, 23:59pm GMT
Winners will be announced on Friday 21st December 2007 on TameBay and BlingIt.us and each winner will be emailed their license activation key.
If you already own a copy of Bling! It? You can still enter – if you win give a copy to a friend!
A link back to your website or eBay page will be provided, if requested.
Get Bling!ing!
Download Bling! It to get started and Happy Bling!ing!
Professional product photos with Bling! It
November 30, 2007
Ever wondered how some sellers get fantastic product shots on professional looking backgrounds? Well the answer is photo editing software and a new product, Bling! It, aims to make it simple. Not only is Bling! It ideal for producing product shots for eBay auctions, but it’s at an affordable price that even the casual seller can cost justify.
There’s nothing more impressive than quality pictures in an auction, and nothing more off putting than a busy or unsuitable background. Too often eBay sellers don’t have a professional studio, and the kitchen floor isn’t an unusual place for photos to be taken. That doesn’t mean your pictures can’t be professional though, if you’d like to get from the picture on the left to the one below, for your eBay auction photos, then you need Bling! It.
Bling! It is a stand alone application that not allows you to replace the background of your photo with a professional one, but can also sharpen and enhance the products appearance. Best of all is how easy it makes the process. Broken down into four stages, removing the background, composing the picture, adding effects and saving the final image, a picture can be enhanced in seconds.
Bling! It software is based on Fluid Mask, but rather than being a photoshop plug in, Bling! It is a fully featured standalone product. You don’t need any other graphics editing software, just your digital camera. Best of all it only costs $49.95 plus VAT, that’s only about £30.00 in UK money. Not only that but you can download the full program on a free 15 day trial so why not test Bling! It on your own product photos?
To show you just how easy it is to get from the original photo to the professional product shot above we’ve got a tutorial in the TameBay Forum.
Fluid Mask 3 for perfect eBay pictures
July 16, 2007
Fluid Mask 3, the amazing masking software to produce cut-outs from composite images is now available. Fluid Mask is supported for both Windows and Mac, as a plugin for PhotoShop and as a stand alone program. Fluid Mask 3 takes blending to a new level by preserving the edge data. In the final result, natural edge blur and contour is preserved for the best, most authentic cut-outs ever.
Every eBay seller strives for perfect photos and with Fluid Mask you can cut out complex images in seconds. Last month in the TameBay forum we had a tutorial showing how to mask the a trainer and place it on a background of your choosing. The work of seconds all clutter and shadows in the background can be removed for the perfect picture.
If anyone has ever tried using a lasso tool to crop a complicated image they’ll know how long it takes. Fluid Mask cuts hours of works to just seconds, it finds the edges for you!
You can download a demo from the Fluid Mask website and to mark the release of Fluid Mask 3 we have a special offer for TameBay readers:
- FLUID MASK 3
- FREE DAILY LIVE TRAINING
- DESKTOP AND LAPTOP LICENSING.
That’s a saving of £10.00 for TameBay readers, just enter the coupon code EBASTAMEBAY when you make your purchase.
I spy iPhones
July 2, 2007
They’re not quite in the league of the ladies who used cleavage to sell the PS3, but Gear Log has a selection of eBay’s worst iPhone photos.
The perfect photo for eBay listings
June 27, 2007
“You can close your mouth now, madam.” It’s a brave man who says that to Sue, but I was as amazed as she was during a demo at eBay Live in Boston: Fluid Mask from Vertus is one of the most stunning Photoshop plugins I’ve ever seen. They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, and rightly, professional sellers on eBay are always looking to improve their images. Many sellers take fantastic quality images but how do you cut out the background to get studio quality pictures?
(Click images to embiggen)
Professional studios would normally charge a fortune for cropping complicated shapes and using tools like the photoshop lasso tool are time consuming. Now Fluid Mask from Vertus can cut the time to crop complicated images down to the work of a few seconds.
We have a full step by step guide on how to produce the image of the shoe in the TameBay Forum.
It doesn’t just stop at irregular shaped objects though, any image can be cropped whether it’s a tree with leaves to a model’s hair. Fluid Mask can cut the image in seconds to leave the parts of the image you want kept and cropping out the background.
You can download a free trial of Fluid Mask from the Vertus website. Fluid Mask 3 runs as a stand-alone and as a plug-in for Adobe’s Photoshop (CS2/CS3) including Photoshop Elements. If you’re as impressed as us then TameBay readers get this special offer:
- FLUID MASK 2
- FREE UPGRADE TO VERSION 3
- FREE DAILY LIVE TRAINING
- DESKTOP AND LAPTOP LICENSING.
That’s a saving of £50.00 for TameBay readers, just enter the coupon code EBASTAMEBAYJUNE when you make your purchase.
$300million worth of picture hosting
May 30, 2007
One of the most commonly asked questions on the eBay community boards is how can I host my own pictures instead of paying eBay fees. The answer almost always quick to be given is use Photobucket. Photobucket is the YouTube of pictures, but has caught the eye of MySpace who have just acquired the site for some $300 million.
eBayers who use the photo hosting service in their auctions should be reassured that the Photobucket blog insists it’ll be business as usual and the site will continue to run as a seperate entity.
Firefox partner with eBay
February 9, 2007
Firefox has announced a partnership with eBay in its efforts to increase market share from Microsoft Internet Explorer. Details so far are sketchy but a “widget” will allow users to allow Firefox users to manage auctions from the browser.
This follows the news yesterday that Firefox will support Kodak EasyShare Gallery allowing users to drag and drop images into their browser and upload, share and print them easily. Kodak already have a partnership with eBay owned Skype using KODAK Photo Voice. This allows Skype users to combine live phone calls with simultaneous online photo sharing.
Firefox distributions already have an eBay search engine installed, although Google is selected as the default. It is possible that the new partnership will provide similar functionality to the eBay Toolbar which currently is only available for Internet Explorer.
Or maybe they’re bad photos of tat?
January 6, 2007
William Boling is an artist who builds typological works that examine ephemeral artifacts and situations in the vernacular landscape.
He collects photos from eBay auctions. [Possibly not safe for work.]
The vast majority of these images are confected for the purposes of the sell and will be erased. … A scholarly literature replete with postmodern analysis is beginning to form around the phenomenon of this new space and its new photography. The traditional indexicality of the still print is shifting with web based photography and nowhere is this seen more vividly than on eBay. … This collection is a kind of sampler that gestures toward – as my postmodern friends might have it — a hermeneutics of the opening phases of new photography in the virtual social space we call eBay. Or as I’ve come to see it, this collection is a digital reliquary for an evanescent photography.
Call me old-fashioned, but I’d say that some things deserve to disappear.
Happy snappy
January 5, 2007
How to build your own light box and infinity board: improve your eBay photos for almost no expenditure, with the added bonus that you need an empty beer box.
