Photographing a reel so a buyer can price it
A buyer who cannot read the tag cannot price the reel. Six photographs, taken once and named properly, do more for a lot than a page of description written from memory.
- Six shots per reel
- Tag legible or it fails
- Name files by reel
Photographs are the first inspection. They decide whether a reel is shortlisted, whether it gets priced as inventory or recovery material, and whether anyone has to drive out to look. That makes the camera work part of the valuation rather than a chore at the end. The standard is not artistic. It is whether a stranger can read the tag, see the conductor and understand where the reel has been sitting.
Two rules carry most of the value. Every image needs something for scale, and every image needs to be traceable to one reel. A hundred photographs with no reel numbers are a mood board. The same hundred with a consistent name and a tag in shot are evidence. Take them before anything is moved, cut, re-banded or re-tagged, because the condition you are documenting is the condition you are selling.
The method, step by step
Open with the whole reel and something for scale
Stand back far enough to get the full reel, both flanges and the floor. Put a person, a tape measure or the fork truck in frame so the size reads without a caption. Write the reel identifier on a card and hold it in shot, or photograph the flange number in the same frame. This is the image that tells a buyer whether the reel is a two-man lift or a crane job.
Shoot the flange face square on, with the tag
Fill the frame with the flange and the tag, and take it straight on rather than from an angle. Turn off the flash if the tag is laminated, because the reflection will white out the print, and shade the tag with your body if the sun is behind you. Take a second frame closer still if any line is hard to read. A tag that cannot be read in the photograph is a missing tag as far as the review goes.
Get the jacket print close enough to read
Photograph the print along the length of the cable, not across it, and get low enough that the letters are not foreshortened. If the print carries a sequential footage mark, take that frame separately and note the number. Chalked or dirty jacket can be wiped with a rag for the photograph, but do not scrub it clean and do not photograph a different section than the one you are selling.
Photograph the conductor end
The cut end is the most informative six inches on the reel. Wipe it, then shoot it square on in good light so the stranding, the insulation wall, any shield or armour and the jacket thickness are all visible. If the end is crushed, bent or full of water, photograph that too rather than tidying it away. On medium voltage cable, the end condition and any moisture in the semicon are the difference between a review and a refusal.
Show where and how it has been stored
A wide shot of the storage position answers questions nobody thought to ask. Is the reel on dunnage or on the ground. Is it against a south-facing wall in full sun. Is the flange cracked, is the lagging half gone, is it under a leaking roof, is it stacked under another reel. Take one frame of the bay rather than the individual reel, and let the reels behind it appear in the background.
Document water staining and then label everything
Staining on the wood, rust runs on the flange, a tidemark on the bottom wraps and green on the copper are all worth a frame each. Then name the files so the set survives: reel number first, then the shot type, so the folder sorts into a story. One folder per reel, and a line in the manifest noting what could not be photographed, such as the far side of a stacked reel.
Before the next call
Shoot the same six frames on every reel and the lot becomes comparable. That consistency is what lets a buyer scan forty reels in ten minutes and come back with questions about four. It also protects you when a reel is opened later, because the condition at the time of the offer is on record rather than in memory.
Take more than six if something is unusual. Never take fewer because the reel looks ordinary. The ordinary reels are the ones that carry the value.
Questions on this
Can I photograph a stack of reels in one shot instead of each one?
For context, yes. For pricing, no. A stack shot cannot show a tag, a cut end or a flange, so nothing in it can be verified. Use one wide frame per bay to establish what is there, then six frames per reel. If a reel is buried, describe it as buried and photograph it when it comes out rather than assuming it is the same as its neighbour.
How many photographs is too many to send?
Six to eight per reel is the useful range. More than that usually means repeated frames, and a set that has to be scrolled becomes a set that is skimmed. If something needs twenty frames, such as a large medium voltage drum with damage at both ends, send them and say why in one sentence. The point is legibility, not volume.
What if the tag is already gone and there is nothing to photograph?
Photograph what remains: the flange stencil, the jacket print at both ends, the cut end, and the reel in its storage position. Then record the reel dimensions and the measured length in the manifest. That set supports an estimate. It will not support a certified footage, and no photograph will fix a tag that left the yard two years ago.
Put the guide to work
Send the lot details and a buyer will tell you which parts of this guide matter for your material.
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