How to photograph a cable reel.

Frame one: the whole reel, with scale

Stand back far enough that the entire reel sits in the picture with a little space around it. Take the flange face, not the tread, because the flange carries the stencil and shows how much cable is left on the drum. Include the ground the reel is standing on, and any water lying in it, since that is where half the condition questions get answered.

Put something of known size against the flange. A boot, a shovel, a pallet corner or a tape measure held flat. Without that reference nobody can tell a 30 inch reel from a 60 inch one, and the difference is the difference between a two person lift and a crane with an operator booked the day before.

Take the frames in the sequence listed, and take them before the reel is banded for transport. Once lagging goes back on, the flange stencil is covered and the cut end is wrapped, and the only record left is whatever was shot earlier. Ten minutes at the reel saves a week of questions later.

Shoot with the light behind you, not behind the reel. A backlit flange becomes a black disc and the tag stops being readable.

Frame two: the tag, flat and readable

The tag is the smallest and most valuable thing on the reel. Fill the frame with it, hold the phone parallel to the surface and tap to focus. If the tag has curled, flatten it with a finger at the edge rather than pressing on the print, which smears ink that has already gone soft in the humidity of a Houston summer.

Watch for glare. A plastic sleeve or a laminated tag reflects a flash or the sky, and the reflection lands exactly where the part number sits. Step to one side, or shade the tag with your body, and take a second frame rather than planning to fix it later, because the tag may not survive the next month of weather.

• Fill the frame with the tag
• Hold the phone parallel to the surface
• Tap to focus, then check the smallest text
• Shade the tag, or step around the glare
• Take a second frame if anything is unreadable

Frame three: the cut end

The cut end is the part of the cable that cannot mislead. It shows conductor material, strand count, approximate size, insulation wall and whether a metallic shield is present. On medium voltage it also shows whether the semicon was cut back cleanly or torn, which is a handling clue as much as it is a defect in its own right.

Photograph it straight on, close, in focus, with the face of the cut turned toward the light. If the end is capped or taped, photograph the cap and say so in the message rather than pulling it off. Where a reel has several ends, photograph the worst one, because that is the end that will set the grade.

For shielded medium voltage cable, angle the end so the layers show. Conductor, insulation, semicon and copper tape read as distinct rings in a good close up, and a buyer can date the construction from them. On portable cord the same frame shows whether the strands are fine or coarse, which says a lot about the original purpose.

Frames four and five: print and ground

Jacket printing runs along the cable at intervals. Find a clean section, wipe it with a rag and photograph it close enough to read. Manufacturer, size, voltage rating, insulation type and often footage are printed there, and it is the fallback when the tag is gone or belongs to a different reel than the one it is wired to.

Then step back and photograph the storage area. Not the reel, the ground around it. Standing water, mud, a tarp, the corner of a container, weeds grown up through the flange. That frame explains more about condition than any close up, and it is the one most sellers leave out of the message.

Sunlight direction decides whether these frames work. Shoot with the sun over your shoulder and the print will read. Shoot into it and the jacket becomes a black stripe with a highlight down the middle. If midday is the only time you have, shade the cable with a board and let the reflected light do the work.

• A clean section of jacket print, close and legible
• The whole storage area, including the ground
• Any standing water, tarp or shelter above the reels
• Access: the truck path and the gate

Send the five frames in one message with a short list of sizes and rough quantities. A buyer can then ask two specific questions instead of ten general ones.