How to Shoot E-Commerce Product Photos

01Why Do Product Photos Decide Sales?

In online shopping, the customer cannot touch, try or smell the product. The only evidence they have is the photo. That is why the e-commerce product photo, together with the product description and price, sits at the center of the buying decision.

A bad photo hurts in two ways: either the customer sees the product as worse than it is and does not buy, or sees it as different from what it is and returns it after buying. A good photo shows the product honestly and attractively; the gap between expectation and the product that arrives closes.

A photo's impact grows when it is combined with the design of the product page. We covered in detail how images sit on the page in our article on product page design.

02What Equipment Do You Need?

You do not have to build a professional studio, but a few basic pieces of equipment change the quality of the result noticeably. The real difference comes less from the camera than from light and stability.

• Tripod: prevents blur and keeps the same angle across all products
• White backdrop card or paper roll (placed curved for an infinity background)
• Soft light source: a softbox, a large window or a diffuser
• White foam board or reflector: to soften shadows
• Light tent (lightbox): a practical solution for small products
• Cleaning cloth and gloves: dust and fingerprints get magnified in photos

03How to Set Up the Lighting

Light is more than half of a product photo. Direct, hard light creates sharp shadows and glare, while soft light shows the product's texture and color more accurately. Use a single type of light: mixing daylight with a yellow bulb distorts colors.

Shooting with Natural Light

Next to a large window is the best studio for those starting on a limited budget. Prefer overcast sky or light softened by a sheer curtain over direct sun. Place a white foam board opposite the window to brighten the shadowed side.

Shooting with Artificial Light

If you will shoot regularly, two softboxes keep lighting conditions the same every day. Place the main light diagonally to the product and the second light at lower power on the opposite side. For products with shiny surfaces (glass, metal, packaged goods), raise the light and change the angle to control reflections.

04White Background Product Shots

White background product shots are the standard main image in e-commerce. They make the product stand out and keep all products looking tidy together on the category page. Some marketplaces make a white background mandatory for the main image; check the current image rules of the platform you sell on.

To get a truly white background, you need to light the background separately from the product. Otherwise the background looks gray and fixing it later takes time. Placing the product a little away from the backdrop also reduces shadow falling on it.

05Which Angles Should You Shoot?

One photo is never enough. Think of the customer picking up and turning the product in a store; the photo set should imitate that experience. The following shots are generally recommended for a product:

1. Main image: from the front, on a white background, with the product filling most of the frame
2. Side and back angles
3. Overview from above or at a 45-degree angle
4. Close-up of texture, stitching, label or material detail
5. Scale photo: showing the product with a hand or a familiar object
6. In-use or lifestyle photo
7. Packaging and box contents

06Product Photography with a Phone

Current smartphones can take photos of sufficient quality for e-commerce with the right light and stability. What you need to watch for when taking product photos with a phone has more to do with habits than with the camera.

• Clean the lens before every shot
• Move the phone closer to the product instead of using digital zoom, or use the main camera
• Do not use portrait mode's artificial blur on the main image; it can distort edges
• Lock the exposure by tapping on the screen and lower it slightly if needed
• Prevent shake with a phone tripod or a timer
• If possible, shoot at the highest resolution and in an uncompressed format

07Image Sizes and Optimization

Another subject as important as the shoot is how the photo is uploaded to the site. Using the same aspect ratio for all products prevents an uneven look on the category page. Square (1:1) or portrait (4:5) are the most common choices in e-commerce.

For the zoom feature to work, the photo must be large enough; but an image displayed on the page that is larger than necessary slows the site down. The solution is to keep the high-resolution original file and serve it on the site in modern formats such as WebP, in different sizes for different screens.

Speed and Search Engines

Large images affect page load time and therefore Core Web Vitals; Google's recommended LCP threshold is 2.5 seconds. Writing file names and alt texts with phrases that describe the product also helps visibility in image search. Our speed and performance management page is a guide on this.

08Product Photo Lighting and Common Mistakes

Most product photo problems come from a few repeated mistakes. Preventing them from the start greatly reduces the time spent editing afterward.

• Mixed light: daylight and bulb together causing a color cast
• The product looking different from its real color (can be a reason for returns)
• Each product shot at a different angle, distance and background
• Excessive filters and retouching; the product looking different from what it is
• Overlooking details such as dust, fingerprints and creased labels
• Adding text, a logo or a discount badge to the main image

09When Should You Get Professional Help?

A business with few products and time to set aside for shooting can get satisfying results with the rules above. Professional shooting makes a difference when the product count grows, when you sell shiny or difficult-surface products, or when brand perception is an important part of the price. Lifestyle photos and campaign visuals in particular require light, location and a set concept.

Aurora's product photography service shoots your products ready for e-commerce, from catalog shoots to campaign visuals; for video needs, our creative production team steps in. Building the shoot plan together with the e-commerce campaign calendar prevents last-minute panic.

How the photos are displayed on the site is a design topic of its own. In our concept design work, where we do not use ready-made themes, image ratios and the product gallery are built around the structure of your products. For an example in a special category such as food, see our article on selling olive oil online; our other shooting articles are collected under the product photography tag.