How do I photograph things properly for selling online?

Listings fail on photographs more than on price. Almost all of the difference between a photograph that sells and one that does not is a plain background, one soft light source, and a set of shots that answers the questions before they are asked.

What you'll need

• A large sheet of white or plain card, or a roll of lining paper
• A window with daylight
• A second sheet of white card as a reflector
• A phone or camera
• A small tripod or something to rest the camera on (optional)

Step by step

1. Build a sweep.Tape a sheet of card or lining paper to a wall and let it curve down onto a table without a crease. The curve removes the horizon line where wall meets table, so the item appears to float on a seamless background. This one thing separates amateur listing photographs from professional ones.
2. Use one window as the light.Place the sweep beside a window with the light coming from the side, not from behind the camera. Turn the room lights off. If the sun is on the window, tape a sheet or net curtain across it.
3. Bounce the shadow side.White card on the far side of the item, angled to throw light back. Move it in and out and watch the shadow open and close. This is the whole of product lighting.
4. Fix the camera position and leave it.A small tripod, or a stack of books, at a consistent height and distance. Consistency across a set of listings looks organised and professional, and it saves you setting up again for each item.
5. Shoot at a small aperture.For a camera, f/8 or so, so the whole object is sharp front to back. Blurred backgrounds are wrong here — a buyer wants to see the thing clearly, not artistically.
6. Work through a fixed shot list.Front straight on, three-quarter angle, back, top, base or underside, close-ups of any brand marks, model numbers and serials, the interior or contents, and every single flaw. Then one photograph with a ruler or a familiar object for scale.
7. Photograph the flaws deliberately and well.A clear photograph of the scratch prevents a return, filters out buyers who would have complained, and builds trust in every other photograph in the listing. Hiding damage guarantees a dispute.
8. Clean the item first.Dust shows mercilessly against a plain background under side light. Wipe it, and use a blower on anything with crevices. Ten seconds here saves an hour of retouching.
9. Check the white balance and correct once.Photograph a white card in the same light, use it to set the neutral point, then apply the same correction to the whole set. Colour accuracy matters more than anything else for clothing, paint and anything sold by colour.
10. Crop and export consistently.Square crops for most marketplaces, same margin around every item, exported at whatever size the platform recommends. A consistent set reads as a professional seller even when the items are second-hand.

Tips

• Grey card can be better than white for pale items — white on white loses the edges entirely.
• For jewellery, glass and anything shiny, the reflection you see in it is the whole picture. Surround it with white card and shoot through a small hole to control what it reflects.
• Shoot everything for a batch of listings in one session with the setup built once. It is the difference between fifteen minutes an item and two minutes.

Common mistakes

• Photographing on a carpet or a patterned duvet — The background competes with the item, the colour bounces back onto it, and the listing reads as careless. A plain sheet is enough if there is no card to hand.
• Using the flash or the overhead light — On-axis flash creates a hard hotspot on any shiny surface and a hard shadow behind. Ceiling light comes from directly above and flattens everything while lighting the top of the item only.
• Taking one photograph from a standing position — A single downward-angled photograph answers none of the questions a buyer has, and listings with a full set of angles measurably outperform those without.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask