Product photos with a phone

You can take good product photos with a phone: put the product by a large window in soft daylight, on a plain white or light background, turn off the flash, hold the phone steady at the product's height, take the same set of angles for every product, and keep the edits light and the same each time. Light and consistency matter far more than the camera.

This guide covers a simple setup that costs almost nothing, the shots every product needs, the phone settings to use and how to prepare the photos for your store.

What you need

• A phone — any recent phone camera is enough.
• A window with daylight, ideally not in direct sun.
• A background: a large sheet of white or light grey card, paper or fabric. A sheet of card curved from the wall down onto a table (a "sweep") gives a clean background with no visible corner.
• Something white to bounce light: a sheet of white card or foam board on the side away from the window fills in the shadows.
• Something to steady the phone: a small tripod with a phone clamp, or a stack of books.
• Tape, a cloth and a soft brush to fix the background and remove dust and fingerprints.

Set up the light

Light is what makes a photo look professional.

1. Use daylight from a window, with the room lights off. Mixed light (daylight plus a warm bulb) gives colours that are hard to correct.
2. Avoid direct sun. It makes hard shadows and bright spots. If the sun shines in, hang a thin white curtain or baking paper over the window to soften it.
3. Put the product beside the window, not in front of it, so the light comes from the side.
4. Place the white card on the other side to bounce light back into the shadows. Move it closer for softer shadows.
5. Shoot at the same time of day for every session, so all your photos match.

If you have no good window, two identical daylight lamps (5000–6500 K) with diffusers, one on each side, do the same job and give the same light every time.

The shots every product needs

Take the same set for every product, in the same order. Customers notice when a store's photos match, and it makes your collections look tidy.

1. The main shot: the whole product, straight on, centred, filling about 80% of the frame, on the plain background.
2. Other angles: back, side, three-quarter view; inside or underneath if it matters.
3. Detail: a close-up of the material, texture, stitching, label or finish.
4. Scale or use: worn, held in a hand, or in a room, so the size is obvious.
5. Each colour: the main shot again for every colour you sell.
6. What is in the box, if more than one item comes with it.

Our guide to what a good product page needs explains how these photos are used on the page.

Phone settings

• Use the main (1×) lens. Do not zoom digitally. Instead, step back slightly and use the 2× lens if your phone has one: it flattens the product a little and avoids the stretched look of a close wide-angle shot.
• Turn off the flash. It flattens the product and creates glare.
• Turn on the grid to keep the product straight and centred.
• Tap the product to focus, then slide the brightness down slightly if white parts look blown out.
• Lock focus and exposure (a long press on most phones) so every shot in the set looks the same.
• Avoid portrait mode for main shots. Its artificial blur often cuts into the product's edges.
• Shoot in the shape you will use. If your store's theme shows products as squares or as 4:5 portraits, compose for that shape now rather than cropping later, so nothing important ends up cut off.

Taking the photos

• Clean the product and the lens first. Dust and fingerprints show up clearly in close-ups.
• Hold the phone at the product's height for the main shot, not looking down on it — unless it is a flat item like a book or a scarf, which you shoot from directly above.
• Keep the phone still: use a tripod or rest it on something, and use the timer or a remote.
• Take several of each shot and choose the sharpest later.
• For clothing, a model or a mannequin shows the fit far better than a flat item; if you photograph flat, smooth and shape the garment carefully and shoot from directly above.

Editing

Keep editing light and the same for every product. The phone's built-in editor is enough.

1. Straighten and crop to the shape your store uses, leaving even space around the product.
2. Correct brightness so the background looks white or light grey, not dull.
3. Correct colour so the product matches the real thing. Check it next to the product: a customer who receives a different colour may send it back or refuse the delivery.
4. Remove dust or marks on the background — never change the product itself.

If you edit many photos, save your adjustments and apply the same ones to every photo from the same session.

On Soooks, the built-in image editor can crop, resize and remove the background, so you can finish photos in your admin.

Preparing photos for your store

• Size: about 2000 pixels on the long side is enough for sharp photos and close-ups. Much larger files only slow the upload.
• File names: name files after what they show (brown-leather-wallet-open.jpg) rather than IMG_4821.jpg.
• Alt text: give every photo a short description of what it shows, such as "Brown leather wallet, open, showing six card slots". People using screen readers hear it, and search engines use it to understand the image.
• Order: put the main shot first; it appears in collections and when the product is shared.
• Colour photos: link each colour's photo to that option, so choosing a colour shows it.

When you upload a photo to Soooks, smaller copies are made automatically and your store shows those instead of the original, so pages stay fast on phones.

Common mistakes

• Mixed light from a window and a lamp, giving yellow or blue colour casts.
• Every product shot differently, which makes the store look unplanned.
• Heavy filters that change the product's colour.
• Busy backgrounds that compete with the product in the main shot.
• Cropping too tight, so the product touches the edges or parts are cut off when the theme shows it in a different shape.