In a physical shop, customers can hold the product. In an online store, they only have your images. Product photography is therefore your most important salesperson — and you don’t need an expensive studio to do it well.

Lighting: the most important thing

Natural light from a large window, without direct sun, gives soft shadows and natural colours. If you shoot often, two softbox lights give you the same result every day. Avoid your phone’s flash.

Background and consistency

  • A neutral, clean background (white or a soft colour) for main images.
  • The same background, distance and angle for all products in a category.
  • A tripod, so photos are sharp and consistent.

Consistency makes category pages look organised and professional.

The shots you need

  1. Main image: the product clearly, from the front, on a neutral background.
  2. Other angles: side, back, top.
  3. Details: texture, stitching, material, label.
  4. In use: the product in a real setting, showing size and purpose.
  5. Variants: each colour or version separately.

Edit in moderation

Correct brightness, white balance and framing, but don’t change colours so the product looks different. A product that doesn’t match its photo means a return and an unhappy customer.

Technical tips for speed and SEO

  • Compress images and use modern formats such as WebP.
  • Use descriptive file names (e.g. brown-leather-bag.jpg) instead of IMG_4521.jpg.
  • Write short alternative text (alt) describing the image — it helps accessibility and image search.
  • Keep the same aspect ratio across all products.

Conclusion

Good lighting, a consistent style and enough angles make a huge difference to sales. If you’re planning a new store or a redesign, M. Dimopoulos can help, from catalogue structure to product presentation — take a look at our work.