But coming up with fresh photo ideas or perfecting your visual strategy isn’t always easy.

That’s why we rounded up 50 ecommerce websites with standout product photography—organized by industry. These examples highlight how top brands use composition, lighting, styling, and editing techniques to elevate their imagery and move more product.

Browse for inspiration. Steal a few ideas. And if you need help turning your own shots into polished product images, we can lend a hand there, too.

Clothing/apparel and footwear

1. Girlfriend Collective

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This set of images features clean, high-resolution portraits of models in active poses, styled against a neutral, seamless background. The garments are front and center, with no distractions from props, textures, or harsh lighting.

This style of photography strikes the right balance between editorial polish and ecommerce clarity—a smart direction for any brand focused on performance, comfort, or versatility.

2. Quince

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Quince uses warm, natural light and textured backdrops like stone, sand, and wood) to create a sun-soaked, lifestyle-driven aesthetic. The product photography feels candid and cinematic, blending fashion with storytelling. Clothing is styled casually and captured in movement or relaxed poses, helping customers imagine how pieces feel and function in real life.

3. Victoria’s Secret

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Victoria’s Secret has secured its spot on the top of the list for product photography for years. It knows how to present their products in a way that speaks to its target audience, and even makes more than 20 million people tune into its annual televised fashion show. 

4. ModCloth

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ModCloth shows its products on models of different shapes and sizes, showing the versatility of various items and allowing its customers to better predict how it would look on them. It does the same with color variations, too.

5. Thirdlove

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Instead of using image editing to create color variants for its products, Third Love shoots custom photography for most of the variants. This creates a more lifelike effect that appeals to shoppers.

6. SSENSE

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This split-screen from SSENSE showcases the brand’s signature editorial-meets-ecommerce photography style—bold, artistic, and culturally tuned-in.

A street-style inspired shot featuring a flowing, pastel-toned skirt, structured black bag, and plush accessory charm. The blurred background and candid motion capture personality, movement, and context—showing the product in the wild.

The flat lay shows a green bikini submerged just below the surface of a rippling pool. The water distortion and sun reflections turn a simple product shot into an abstract composition. It’s aspirational, seasonal, and emotionally evocative—perfectly suited for a trend-forward audience.

7. Coterie

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These product photos from Coterie offer a clean, clinical, and elevated aesthetic that aligns with the brand’s premium baby care positioning. Shot against a soft, gradient blue background, the diapers are perfectly centered and isolated—creating a sterile but comforting environment that enhances product trust.

What works well:

• Perfect symmetry and clarity: Both the front and back views are shot with precision and balance, emphasizing shape, texture, and material. This symmetry helps customers understand fit and structure at a glance.
• Soft, diffused lighting: Gentle lighting minimizes harsh shadows and ensures every detail of the diaper—such as the elastic bands, fabric texture, and wetness indicator—is clearly visible.
• No distractions: The minimalist backdrop and absence of props keep the focus entirely on the product, reinforcing a sense of hygiene and quality.

Symmetry sells—especially in fashion. Learn how perfectly mirrored product photos boost conversions and trust.

Learn more

Jewelry 

8. Deliqa Gems

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Each ring is photographed against a seamless white background, allowing the viewer to focus solely on the craftsmanship, color, and cut. This is essential for high-conversion jewelry ecommerce.

The lighting is soft but directional—eliminating harsh shadows while enhancing gemstone brilliance and gold luster. It’s especially effective for faceted stones, making them pop with fire and depth.

Deliqa shows different angles—front, top-down, and profile views, giving online shoppers a true-to-life sense of scale and form, mimicking an in-store experience.

Retouching is used judiciously: reflections are polished, shadows are uniform, and every gem is color-corrected for maximum vibrancy.

9. Electric Picks

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Electric Picks’s jewelry product photography strikes a perfect balance between lifestyle and studio shots—an ideal approach for modern ecommerce. The left image shows the necklace worn on a model, adding context, warmth, and emotional appeal. The other two are clean studio shots that focus on detail and form. This blend helps shoppers envision the item both in real life and up close.

All three images use natural-looking, diffused light that avoids harsh reflections (a must for shiny metals like gold). The earrings in particular benefit from soft-edged shadows that give them dimension without distraction.

10. ROEN

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ROEN’s jewelry photography example delivers a premium, high-end aesthetic that aligns with luxury engagement ring shopping—balancing emotion, clarity, and craftsmanship.

The leftmost image shows the product on a hand in warm, soft lighting, immediately evoking romance, elegance, and aspiration. It adds emotional weight to the otherwise clinical product lineup.

The remaining three images showcase the rings against clean, light-gray backdrops with subtle shadows that lift the products off the page. Each shot is expertly lit to maximize sparkle, metal luster, and form—especially in the center stone.

Side views, angled shots, and direct front views all help customers evaluate details like band thickness, setting style, and stone cut. 

11. Susan Alexandra

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This playful product photo brilliantly blends creativity and humor to showcase a beaded dog leash set. The real dachshund and its beaded twin—linked by matching rainbow leashes—instantly grab attention and make the image unforgettable.

This image is a strong example of how injecting personality and playfulness into product photography can make a brand stand out—especially for fun accessories.

12. OUTOFOFFICE

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This set of product photos uses clean styling and close-up detail to showcase modern jewelry in a minimal, elevated way. Each frame focuses on a different piece—earrings, rings, bracelets, and necklaces—while keeping the background simple and distraction-free.

This style is ideal for luxury, designer, or minimalist brands that want to convey sophistication and clarity in their product presentation.

13. Jewels & Aces

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This series of close-up earring shots exemplifies how subtle styling and soft lighting can elevate small, intricate jewelry. Each image highlights a layered ear stack featuring dainty gold chains and diamonds, worn in unique yet coordinated pairings.

Here’s what we like: 

• Warm, natural light: The lighting enhances the gold tones and gemstone sparkle without harsh shadows.
• Tight framing: Zoomed-in ear shots keep the focus on detail, allowing customers to see how each piece fits and drapes.
• Consistent tone: The cohesive color palette and similar poses across models create a polished, trustworthy brand image.

Want your jewelry shots to sparkle like ROEN or Electric Picks? Learn the secret techniques for high-converting images in our expert guide: How to Edit Jewelry Product Photos Like a Pro

Learn more

Footwear and accessories

14. Glasses Direct

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While Glasses Direct has straightforward yet beautiful white background product photos, supporting visuals round out the impact for potential customers. Illustrations that outline dimensions help shoppers estimate how the frames would fit on their own faces.

15. hardgraft

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With a muted, desaturated palette and soft directional lighting, each item is photographed with studio precision against a neutral background. hardgraft’s deliberate use of shadows adds depth and dimension without distraction, allowing the tactile richness of suede, leather, and wool to take center stage. 

The styling is minimal but intentional—products are cleanly isolated yet carry subtle lifestyle cues, like an unzipped kit or a pencil-stuffed wrap. This clean and cohesive look highlights craftsmanship and quality, appealing to discerning customers who appreciate quiet sophistication.

16. Mulberry

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This campaign showcases handbags in vibrant, outdoor settings that feel both editorial and approachable. Rather than sterile studio shots, these lifestyle images embed the bags into real-world fashion moments—making them feel aspirational yet accessible.

Each look is styled to suggest a narrative—countryside strolls, spring fashion—adding depth and relatability to the product. Shooting outdoors brings out texture and color in the bags, while the blooming florals and tree-lined road evoke seasonal charm. Bold outfits and confident poses draw attention, but the handbags remain the focal point, always held prominently and clearly lit.

17. Birkenstock

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Birkenstock’s product photography strikes a balance between lifestyle and studio visuals. From sun-drenched sidewalk shots to clean, floating product images, each photo highlights the brand’s signature comfort and craftsmanship. The use of natural textures—brick, stone, and foliage—adds warmth and tactility, making the sandals feel at home in any setting. 

Meanwhile, crisp lighting and soft shadows emphasize material quality, like nubuck leather and contoured cork soles. Their floating product shot, set against a cool gradient background, draws the eye to every strap and buckle with sculptural clarity. Birkenstock’s visuals are proof that even casual footwear can look iconic with the right photography.

18. Chalo

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This image series presents handcrafted leather boots through a rich visual narrative that blends craftsmanship, product detail, and styling. From top-down flat lays to styled shots and macro textures, it balances artistic flair with product clarity.

Warm, earthy hues echo the natural materials and craftsmanship, making the entire set feel cohesive and tactile. Including the artisan’s hands working on the leather gives authenticity and emphasizes the handmade quality—connecting product to maker.

Technology

19. Bang & Olufsen

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This photo is a stellar example of minimal, lifestyle-oriented product photography that speaks volumes without clutter—a highly effective way to market portable tech like Bluetooth speakers.

Shooting the speaker partially buried in sand immediately communicates durability, portability, and outdoor utility—perfect for beach days or travel. Plus, the fine mesh texture of the speaker contrasts beautifully with the rough, grainy sand, drawing the eye directly to the product.

The subtle motion blur of sand being brushed aside adds energy and realism, reinforcing the “on-the-go” lifestyle. And the soft pinkish-gold tone of the speaker and tan leather strap blend seamlessly with the neutral sandy palette, creating a warm, aspirational tone.

20. Apple

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The iconic tech brand has made smartphones, computers and other tech devices look sexier than ever. The brand has such a strong visual aesthetic, and all product photos support that image—including photos on its distributors’ sites.

21. Sonos

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This image from Sonos showcases a Bluetooth speaker and a pair of over-ear headphones in a highly polished, product-centric style that’s ideal for ecommerce and tech retail. The clean, white background removes all distractions, keeping the focus entirely on the product design—perfect for a high-end tech brand.

Subtle drop shadows under both products add depth and dimension, helping them stand out while maintaining a crisp, modern aesthetic. The matte black finishes are lit specifically to highlight contours without losing the rich, dark texture—key for showcasing premium materials.

Plus, including the TIME Best Inventions 2024 badge for the headphones subtly reinforces credibility and innovation without overwhelming the visual.

Beauty, cosmetics, and skincare

22. Max Factor

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The bright white backdrop keeps all the focus on the products and makes the colors pop. It’s also super consistent, which is great for brand identity and gives everything a polished, high-end vibe. 

Each product is facing forward in a clear, easy-to-identify way. No weird tilts or artsy shadows—just straightforward, scroll-stopping clarity. You immediately know what’s what: foundation, mascara, lip color, and an eyeshadow palette.

Max Factor doesn’t just show product containers:

• The lip color shows the wand and box.
• The mascara is open, showing the brush (which is a key selling feature).
• The eyeshadow palette is open to show the actual shades.

Basically, the photos answer the unspoken “But what does it look like inside?” question before you even have to ask.

23. Essie

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This photo nails the vibe. The mix of bright turquoise, fiery red, and cheery yellow nail art really pops against the warm-toned background. It draws your eye to the nails without needing a spotlight. Each nail tells a mini story—smiley face, abstract flames, a playful “X”—making it feel custom, not cookie-cutter. This is less “salon menu,” more “expression in progress.”

And you get more than just the nails. The texture of the fabric, the paintbrushes, the speckles—it adds a sense of realness and movement, like we just walked in on an artist mid-project.

24. Wiselands

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Wiselands uses rich, moody lighting to elevate its product photography, giving skincare essentials a luxe, tactile presence. The close-up shots highlight the amber glass packaging and gold typography, with warm shadows that enhance the sense of calm and care. Subtle skin contact and soft textures create an intimate, grounded feel—perfectly suited for a brand focused on clean, conscious ingredients. 

The lighting is deliberately imperfect, mimicking golden-hour warmth that flatters both the product and the skin it’s meant for. It’s a masterclass in using tone and minimalism to communicate trust and quality.

25. Crown Affair

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The minimalist layout and monochrome color palette for Crown Affair’s product photos ooze luxury. It’s giving calm confidence without shouting for attention. 

Each product is centered, evenly lit, and spaced the same—perfect for a sleek grid or product catalog. Cohesion like this builds brand trust fast. And the soft shadows and contrast between black and white bottles add just enough depth to keep things visually interesting without losing the clean aesthetic.

26. Vacation Inc.

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Sunscreen brand Vacation Inc. uses bold, retro-inspired design. The packaging and photo styling lean heavily into a nostalgic ’80s/’90s vacation aesthetic, reinforcing the brand’s identity. Everything from the fonts to the saturated colors supports this.

Despite the vibrant branding, the layout is clean. Products are isolated against a pale gradient background, keeping attention on the packaging.

Outdoors and sporting goods

27. Linus 

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This example from bike brand Linus takes a lifestyle over product approach. We’re sold on the vibe before the bike. It’s aspirational but also relatable—perfect for parents and cool kids alike.

The mid-movement shot adds energy and makes the product feel fun and adventurous. The text placement is smart: bold, centered, and readable without overpowering the image.

28. Pow Gloves

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Pow Gloves delivers high-impact product photography that leans into performance, texture, and environment. Shot in snowy alpine conditions, its imagery captures real-world functionality while keeping the product in crisp focus. 

Frosted lenses, fleecy knits, and matte leathers pop against blurred white backdrops, highlighting both material quality and cold-weather capability. The models are active but cropped, letting the gloves and headwear shine without distraction.

29. Beestinger

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Beestinger’s product photography balances precision and action, capturing the high-performance world of archery stabilizers. Each image speaks directly to its audience—whether it’s competitive target shooters or camo-clad hunters—by showing the gear in realistic, high-stakes contexts. 

Sharp detail on textures like carbon fiber, metal finishes, and compound bows communicates quality and durability. Meanwhile, the use of tight crops and dynamic angles keeps the focus on function, not fluff. By pairing lifestyle imagery with close-up product visuals, Beestinger hits the bullseye on authenticity and trust—two essentials in any performance-driven category.

30. CamelBak

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The top-down flat lay showcases CamelBak’s water bottles in a scattered, playful arrangement. Each bottle is angled differently, giving the scene energy and allowing each product to stand out while still feeling part of a cohesive set.

The smooth teal gradient adds visual interest without stealing the spotlight. It complements the product colors and adds depth, helping the matte finishes of the bottles pop.

The lighting is soft but directional enough to highlight the textures—especially the powder-coated surfaces and engraved designs. This gives a tactile sense of quality without relying on close-ups.

The photo manages to feel unified while showing a range of products: mugs, tumblers, bottles—each in a different color and size. It’s a great way to communicate customization options without crowding the frame.

31. Lift Foils

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Lift Foils captures the thrill and elegance of hydrofoil surfing through cinematic, lifestyle-driven photography. Their imagery effortlessly blends action and atmosphere—highlighting both product performance and the aspirational lifestyle that surrounds it. 

From crisp shots of foil boards slicing through tropical waves to grounded moments of riders gearing up at the shoreline, every frame conveys motion, freedom, and connection to nature. The gear is presented in real use, allowing water, sunlight, and setting to act as natural visual enhancers. This approach not only showcases the quality of the product but also sells the lifestyle it unlocks. It’s adventure marketing at its finest.

32. Landyachtz

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Landyachtz uses clean, minimal product photography to make bold skateboard designs pop. Set against bright white backgrounds, each board is perfectly centered and evenly lit, allowing the intricate deck artwork—from hand-illustrated mountains to surreal portraits—to shine without distraction. 

This studio-style approach highlights every detail of shape, texture, and color, making the craftsmanship unmistakable. The consistency across the images also creates a seamless browsing experience, while the sharp, high-resolution shots invite zoom-level inspection. It’s a textbook example of how white-background photography can still feel expressive and brand-forward.

33. Ethnotek

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Ethnotek’s product photography perfectly reflects the brand’s vibrant, adventure-ready identity. Shot in natural, wild settings, their bags are photographed in real-world use—slung over shoulders, perched on rocks, or trekking through fields. 

This lifestyle-forward approach puts the product in context, emphasizing durability and design for travel and outdoor enthusiasts. The saturated colors of the bags stand out beautifully against the natural backdrops, and each shot is carefully composed to showcase both form and function. The result is photography that feels aspirational, authentic, and deeply connected to the brand’s do-good, go-anywhere ethos.

Furniture and home goods

34. MADE

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MADE’s product photography captures the harmony of modern living with a refined, editorial edge. Each image is carefully styled to showcase not just the product—sofas, lighting, or beds—but the ambiance they create. The lighting is soft and consistent, emphasizing texture, shape, and color in a natural way. Warm, muted tones pair with clean architectural lines, drawing the eye through the space and highlighting each design detail without distraction. 

The result is an inviting, aspirational scene that feels livable yet elevated. MADE’s photography doubles as interior inspiration, turning every product into part of a cohesive lifestyle story.

35. LOEHR

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LOEHR’s product photography is a prime example of modern minimalism. With sharp, architectural compositions and pristine lighting, each image distills furniture design down to its purest form. 

Materials and textures are foregrounded—brushed metals, matte lacquers, and soft upholstery—without unnecessary staging or visual clutter. The crisp shadows and natural gradients from ambient light add depth while preserving the clarity of shape and line. 

The result is bold, geometric forms. LOEHR’s photography doesn’t just display a product—it reflects the brand’s design philosophy: functional, thoughtful, and quietly radical.

36. Simon Pearce

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Set against airy, sun-drenched environments, Simon Pearce’s imagery brings out the artisanal quality of each glass and ceramic piece. The clear sparkle of handblown glassware, the creamy textures of stoneware, and the golden tones of sunlight on surfaces are all captured with refined precision. Lifestyle compositions feel warm and inviting—perfectly styled without feeling staged. 

Whether it’s a mimosa brunch or champagne on the patio, the photography captures the brand’s essence: craftsmanship, comfort, and understated luxury. This is storytelling through light, texture, and good taste.

37. Motel a Miio

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Motel a Miio’s product photography bursts with color, warmth, and Mediterranean charm. The brand highlights the artisanal quality of its handmade ceramics through rich textures, sunlit surfaces, and thoughtful arrangements. 

Each image showcases the uniqueness of glazing and form—from the dreamy aqua blues of bowls to the peachy-pink blush of plates. Natural shadows and earthy backdrops give the shots a tactile, sun-kissed feel, inviting viewers to imagine relaxed outdoor dining or cozy kitchen moments. The photography is not just beautiful—it’s transportive, evoking a laid-back, design-forward lifestyle rooted in craftsmanship.

38. Studio Neat

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Studio Neat uses minimalist product photography. In this example, each item is suspended against a clean, white backdrop with gentle shadows, emphasizing their streamlined form and material finish. The floating composition gives the products a modern, weightless feel, aligning with their functional and design-forward ethos. 

Every visual choice—neutral lighting, soft gradients, centered framing—supports a sleek and utilitarian aesthetic. 

Cars and automotive

39. Carvana

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Carvana takes a clean, uniform approach to product photography by displaying each vehicle category in profile against a pure white background. The consistency in angle, lighting, and car color (white) helps customers compare models quickly while reinforcing trust through visual clarity. 

For ecommerce brands managing large SKUs or configurable product categories, this style benefits from clipping path, retouching, and shadow effects to ensure clean, scalable presentation across all digital platforms.

40. CarBahn

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CarBahn’s product photography leans into a high-performance, gearhead aesthetic with bold contrast, sharp lighting, and industrial backdrops. Each category image emphasizes material texture and mechanical precision. There’s a tactile, real-world feel, with shots that oscillate between clean studio setups and gritty workshop environments. 

This style is ideal for performance auto brands. Related edits might include color correction, reflection and glare removal, and precision shadow work to enhance contrast and depth without over-editing the hardware’s raw appeal.

41. Mercedes-Benz

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Mercedes-Benz’s product photography captures futuristic elegance with cinematic precision. This concept vehicle is shot under ambient, gradient lighting that complements the sleek contours and metallic finish, making it feel like a luxury object from the future. The low angle and subtle reflections emphasize design innovation—fluid lines, illuminated details, and aerodynamic form—while keeping the focus on craftsmanship and vision.

Lifestyle and miscellaneous

42. StickerBrand

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StickerBrand’s product photography transforms wall decals into immersive, real-life design statements. Each wall is staged in context—whether it’s a moody café corner or a leafy bedroom escape—so shoppers can picture the product in their own space. The lighting is soft and natural, allowing the decals to blend seamlessly with furniture, textiles, and finishes while still standing out with crisp lines and vibrant color.

43. Bambi Baby

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Bambi Baby’s product photography blends lifestyle and catalog styles to showcase both the function and feeling behind its premium baby gear. 

The left side of this example shows a warm, everyday moment—a family on a walk at golden hour. This emotional lifestyle shot balances beautifully with the crisp, isolated product shots on the right, which highlight detail, color variations, and pricing. This dual approach supports both storytelling and conversion. 

44. Bentley

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Bentley’s luggage line embraces bold, clean, and ultra-modern product photography that celebrates color as a core brand identity. The suitcases are displayed in a tight lineup with seamless lighting and minimal shadows, highlighting each hue without distraction. The gradient floor and backdrop also complement the tones of each suitcase.

45. Walmart

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Walmart uses bright, consistent, and brand-forward product photography to energize its promotional graphics. Each product—from beauty tools and smart tech to outdoor gear—is presented against soft, uniform color backdrops that create an airy and cheerful visual experience. Items are expertly isolated, often enhanced with clipping paths, drop shadows, and vibrant retouching to make them pop while maintaining a cohesive brand aesthetic.

Food and drink

46. Candy Club

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Vibrant gummies, chocolates, and sour belts spill playfully from jars across a crisp white background, letting the intense colors and textures take center stage. The overhead layout creates a sense of abundance, while the neatly styled candy piles maintain a polished, crave-worthy aesthetic. Candy Club’s photos are a visual sugar rush that makes every sweet treat look like a party.

47. Rauch

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Rauch brings a playful, shelf-ready polish to its product photography. Against a smooth gradient backdrop that shifts from citrus yellow to cream, each beverage line is given equal spotlight with symmetrical placement and minimal distractions.

Each product floats with a subtle shadow, allowing vibrant packaging to take center stage. The lighting is soft yet evenly distributed, enhancing the saturated colors and fruity visual cues without harsh glare. 

48. Backyard Butchers

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Backyard Butchers nails a clean, trust-building presentation that’s perfect for high-value food subscriptions. Its product photography highlights premium meat packs in pristine kitchen settings with natural light, fresh produce, and minimal props—immediately reinforcing freshness, quality, and home delivery convenience.

49. Tony’s Chocolonely

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Tony’s Chocolonely brings the same bold, joyful energy of its packaging into its product photography. Vibrant, solid-color backgrounds create instant visual impact while keeping the focus squarely on the products. Items are shot straight-on with clean clipping paths and slight shadows to create a floating effect, lending a sense of playfulness and modernity. Every shot is bright, color-blocked, and punchy enough to pop in any feed or grid.

50. Ghia

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Set against a creamy, sunlit backdrop, Ghia combines perfect product symmetry with unexpected moments—like a pour shot mid-air or cans balancing precariously on glassware. The lighting is soft yet directional, giving glass and liquid a gentle glow while letting label colors pop with vintage flair.

Create your perfect product photos

Great product photography doesn’t just capture what you’re selling—it captures why someone should care. Across industries, from fashion to food to tech, the most successful ecommerce brands use thoughtful visuals to build trust, spark desire, and drive conversions.

If you need help making your own photos stand out, we’re here to help. From background removal and retouching to full-on image enhancements, our team can take your product photos from functional to phenomenal.

Ready to elevate your product visuals? See how our photo editing services work and get started transforming your images today.

Learn more

The post Product Photography: 50 Ecommerce Websites With Inspiring Photos appeared first on Path Edits.

Clothing doesn’t cooperate like rigid products do. But there are plenty of proven tips and tricks to help with the three stages—prep, shooting, and post-production—so you can consistently create balanced, professional photos that convert.

Why symmetry matters in apparel product photography

Put simply, symmetry is pleasing to the eye. It represents order that our brain likes. Like a bookshelf with perfectly aligned spines or evenly stacked towels. But if you look at a building that has every window perfectly aligned except one, you’d notice it immediately.

The same applies to your product photography. If your apparel shots are crooked, unbalanced, or asymmetrical, shoppers notice—and not in a good way. Symmetry triggers trust, which in turn can help boost your sales. 

When buyers see balanced, well-aligned product images—like The Wildlife Trusts online storefront—they perceive higher quality and professionalism. It’s a subconscious signal that you care about details, which translates to caring about your products.

Pre-shoot preparation: setting up for symmetry 

The right prep can save you hours of editing later and help you achieve that balanced, professional look from the start.

Choosing the right garments and prep

• Select quality samples: Choose garments in excellent condition without permanent wrinkles, stretched fabric, or damaged seams that can’t be easily fixed.
• Steam thoroughly: Remove all wrinkles and creases before shooting. Pay extra attention to sleeves, collars, and hems where asymmetry is most noticeable.
• Know your fabrics: Delicate materials like silk need gentle handling and may require clips to maintain shape (without over stretching). Heavier fabrics like denim hold their form better but need proper steaming.
• Arrange details evenly: Position buttons, zippers, and accessories symmetrically before shooting.
• Check seam alignment: Ensure shoulder seams, side seams, and collar edges are properly positioned and won’t create uneven lines.

Mannequin and display preparation

• Choose proper sizing: Select mannequins (or models) that fit your garments without stretching or bunching the fabric. You can turn images into ghost mannequins later.
• Align mannequin straight: Position mannequins facing directly forward. Shoot straight-on or at a slight up/down angle.
• Support flat lays: Use foam core boards or batting inside garments to add structure and eliminate wrinkles for flat lay shots.
• Add dimension: Stuff sleeves and body sections with batting to create natural-looking volume and shape.
• Pin invisible points: Secure fabric from behind using straight pins to keep symmetrical draping.

Some pieces won’t work symmetrical and that’s fine. Still apply all other prep and shooting tips to get high quality photos. For example, this cape on Project Cece’s online shop is asymmetrical and calls for balanced composition rather than forced symmetry.

During the shoot: capturing balanced apparel images

Photographing and arranging products isn’t quick work—even teams with professional stylists might max out at 10 items per shoot day, though dedicated studios with specialized workflows can typically process more.

Camera settings for optimal symmetry

• Choose longer focal lengths: Use 50mm, 85mm or longer to minimize distortion that can make clothing look uneven or warped. If you’ve got limited space, zoom lenses can come in handy.
• Set consistent aperture: Shoot around f/8-f/11 to keep the entire garment in sharp focus from front to back.
• Position camera center: Keep your camera dead-center and level. For top-down shots, ensure the camera is truly overhead to avoid skewing.
• Use a sturdy tripod: Essential for consistent framing, sharp images, and avoiding camera shake.
• Set up even lighting: Use two lights (ideally), positioned on either side to eliminate uneven shadows. Adjust angles based on fabric thickness.
• Enable camera gridlines: Use your camera’s grid overlay to align garments perfectly within the frame. You can also shoot tethered and connect to a monitor to catch any issues in real-time.
• Frame precisely: Frame your shots exactly as needed from the start. If you plan on removing background or doing other edits like drop shadow, you can always adjust canvas size during editing. Just make sure to fully capture your product so you have plenty to work with in editing.

Styling techniques for balance

Different garments will benefit from different arm positions—some look better with hands close to the body, others with arms slightly bent away. Whatever you choose, make sure both sides match for symmetrical posing.

• Use clips, pins, and even tape behind the garment to create perfect draping while keeping them invisible from camera view.
• Review each shot immediately to catch issues before moving to the next setup. What looks balanced to your eye may appear crooked in the photo.
• Make small adjustments between shots rather than major repositioning. 

Post-production: fine-tuning your symmetry  

Even with perfect shooting, most apparel photos need symmetry adjustments. Good clothing editing fixes natural flaws without making products look artificial and matches both sides, not copy-pastes half a garment.

Basic symmetry edits anyone can do

• Crop and straighten: Use your editing app’s grid overlays to align garments perfectly within the frame and correct any camera tilt. In Adobe Photoshop, you can select several grids when cropping, such as Rule of Thirds or Triangle (both great for quickly centering your shots) or Grids (for more precision).

• Make minor adjustments: Fix small imperfections like uneven hems or slightly askew collars using basic retouching tools.
• Address wrinkles: You can’t get true symmetry on wrinkled fabric, so make sure to smooth out any obvious creases.

Professional symmetry editing techniques

Professional symmetry editing involves complex, precise adjustments that require advanced skills:

• Sleeve alignment: Matching sleeve length, cuff positioning, and draping between left and right sides
• Side-edge corrections: Ensuring garment edges create perfect parallel lines and consistent silhouettes
• Curve refinement: Smoothing necklines, armholes, and hemlines for balanced curves
• Detail alignment: Positioning pockets, buttons, zippers, and decorative elements to mirror exactly

These edits involve reshaping fabric digitally while keeping realistic texture and natural draping. Our mirror image symmetry service handles these complex fixes so you can focus on shooting and growing your business instead of spending hours on detailed post-production. 

When to DIY vs. when to outsource

Not every symmetry issue can be fixed with editing. Major fabric distortions or non-mirrored patterns need to be corrected during shooting—no amount of post-production can create symmetry that wasn’t captured originally.

Some garments, like the patterned shirt from Omnes, look balanced in shape but have naturally asymmetric designs. For these pieces, focus on getting the overall structure right during shooting, then handle simple fixes like ghost mannequin effects, lighting adjustments, and wrinkle removal.

Basic edits like cropping and straightening work fine as DIY projects. But complex symmetry corrections can take hours per image. For busy photographers and ecommerce brands, professional editing usually costs less than your time while delivering better results. 

And with marketplaces like Amazon requiring high-quality images, professional symmetry editing gives you that polished result that DIY edits can’t always achieve.

Symmetry checklist 

Check all these before approving your images and you’re good to go:

• No obvious wrinkles (natural fabric draping is fine)
• Sleeves and hems are aligned and match in length
• Collar and necklines are centered and balanced
• Buttons, zippers, and pockets are positioned symmetrically
• Fabric drapes evenly on both sides
• Lighting is balanced with no uneven shadows

Consistently balanced shots for every product

Not only does symmetrical apparel photography help your products look appealing, it also meets the high standards that customers expect in ecommerce. Whether you edit in-house or outsource the tricky stuff, what matters is finding the approach that works for your workflow and quality needs.

Need help getting perfect symmetry? Path’s editors handle complex apparel fixes, saving you time while delivering professional results for any marketplace.

The post How to Take Symmetrical Apparel Photos for Ecommerce appeared first on Path Edits.

Humans are wired to crave symmetry. It signals beauty, balance, and trust—exactly the feelings you want to trigger when someone lands on your product page.

When you think about symmetric photos, think ecommerce photography for apparel, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, electronics, and anything presented in a clean, controlled environment. Symmetry matters even more in apparel photography, especially for things like ghost mannequin shots where structure, balance, and form all drive buyer confidence.

Why you need symmetric product photos

Studies show that 87% of online shoppers believe enhanced product content is helpful to them during their shopping journey. In today’s competitive landscape, delivering symmetric, polished images isn’t optional—it’s the bare minimum.

Here’s why:

• Aesthetic: Symmetry creates a polished, professional look that immediately elevates your brand.
• Easy browsing: Balanced images are easier to process visually, making it faster for customers to evaluate and compare products.
• Visual trust: Symmetry builds instant credibility and makes your brand feel more reliable.
• Emotional appeal: Symmetrical compositions feel satisfying, calm, and complete — all things that lower buying friction.
• Performance metrics: Symmetrical product photos often convert better, boosting both clicks and sales.

That’s where Path comes in. Our expert editors apply symmetry with care—enhancing your product’s natural design without making it look artificial or over-edited.

When and how to use symmetric ecommerce photos

Highly detailed products

If you sell jewelry, electronics, watches, or anything intricate, symmetry highlights the craftsmanship and premium quality you’re trying to showcase.

Highlight centerpiece items

Hero images, like your main PDP photo or homepage feature, need to feel instantly strong and balanced. Symmetry gives products that commanding presence.

Premium products and brands

Luxury brands know: symmetry is a visual shortcut to higher perceived value. It signals attention to detail, care, and sophistication.

Selling symmetrical products

When you sell mirrors, tech gadgets, skincare bottles, apparel, shoes, accessories, cosmetics — basically anything designed with balance in mind — your photos should mirror that symmetry. It reinforces design quality and makes browsing intuitive.

Bonus: Ghost mannequin shots especially benefit from perfect symmetry to create clean, realistic apparel displays.

Marketplace product photography

Symmetrical product photos aren’t just nice—they perform better in marketplace search results and listings, helping you stand out in crowded spaces. If you sell on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, etc., you might even be required to use symmetric product photos. 

Marketing and advertising campaigns

Symmetry draws the eye and keeps viewers engaged. Whether you’re designing social media ads, web banners, or print catalogs, symmetric images create irresistible visual flow.

High-end retouching

Good symmetry editing polishes natural flaws—like a slightly crooked seam or uneven laces—without making your product look artificial. It’s subtle, invisible craftsmanship that makes a major difference.

Tips for symmetric product photography

Here’s the key to mastering symmetry without overdoing it:

Keep the product’s natural shape and design intact.

Center lines, balance proportions, and adjust visible angles carefully.

Use symmetry to enhance authenticity—not to create a fake-looking “clone.”

Don’t force symmetry where it doesn’t naturally exist.

Avoid warping, pinching, or unnaturally stretching parts of the product.

Stay away from edits that make products feel sterile or “too perfect”—buyers can tell.

Get it perfect, every time

Symmetry isn’t just about making your photos look good—it’s about building trust and driving sales. In ecommerce, symmetry is a small investment that delivers a big payoff.

Ready to sharpen your product photos with perfect symmetry? At Path, our expert editors specialize in balancing precision with authenticity. We’ll polish your product images so they feel clean, credible, and irresistible—all with quick turnaround times, industry-leading accuracy, and deep ecommerce expertise.

Perfect your photos with symmetry

Get instant pricing

The post Symmetry Sells: Why Balanced Product Photos Convert Better appeared first on Path Edits.

Below, look at the definition of product photography, as well as best practices and examples to inspire your own.

What is product photography?

Product photography is the art of capturing images of goods for sale. These images are used in ecommerce stores, ads, packaging, and catalogs to highlight product features and inspire confidence in buyers.

Also known as commercial product photography, it includes everything from simple white background shots to stylized lifestyle images. The goal is to help potential buyers understand, desire, and trust your product—visually.

While traditional product photography uses cameras, some brands also use 3D renderings that mimic real photos. These can be effective, though purists argue that only real-camera images count as true product photography.

Comprehensive Cranium Care, a brand of “hair” products for bald people, outsources its 3D renders.

Types of product photography

Product photography is a type of object photography and a type of advertising photography, but you can get even more granular:

White background

White background photos are the ones you see on ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon, AliExpress, and eBay. They may have individual product photos or white background shots that feature multiple images. This is arguably the most common product photo type you’ll see.

360-degree

360-degree photography captures a product from every angle, letting shoppers rotate and view it interactively—almost like holding it in their hands. These image sets are often stitched together with special software to create a seamless, scrollable experience on ecommerce sites.

This is what professional photographer Eric of CiReC 360° specializes in. He relies heavily on Path for outsourced photo edits because each “image” is actually a series of several images, and the edits must be perfect across all shots. 

Lifestyle shots

Lifestyle shots are photos that feature people using the product in a real-world setting. These tell a story and help shoppers imagine themselves with your product.

Contextual

Contextual photos are similar to lifestyle photography, but they may not feature people. These show the product in its natural environment (e.g., barstools in a kitchen, a yoga mat in a studio).

Scale shots

Scale shots are product photos that give a frame of reference so people can envision how big the products are. While product specs and dimensions are descriptive, sometimes shoppers need an image to see how big or small it is in comparison to common objects.

Detail

Detailed product shots are close-ups that highlight materials, textures, or small design elements. They’re crucial for luxury, beauty, apparel, or any product where touch and feel are important.

Group

Group product shots feature multiple items. Typically, these products are related in some way. You might bundle them together as a promotion, or feature the same item in different products. 

Flat lay

Flat lay photos are taken from a bird’s eye view. The bird’s-eye view photos show products arranged on a flat surface. These are perfect for social media and allow for creative storytelling through layout.

Packaging

Packaging product photos are the images that go on the box, bag, label, or whatever packaging holds your merchandise. These photos are important because they appeal to in-person shoppers. It’s especially important to consider this if the packaging hides the product, which you commonly see with food and beauty items. 

User-generated

User-generated content (UGC) includes product photos taken by anyone other than your brand or employees. These photos are typically shared on social media, so you can repost or feature the content on your own website as a form of social proof. UGC product photography isn’t ideal as your main photo, but it’s a great complement to your product pages.

Skincare brand Topicals has a carousel of UGC photos at the bottom of its website. It shows authenticity and social proof of its products.

How do you take product photos?

While the art of product photography requires much more than a single article (there are courses listed below!), the high level process is as follows:

1. Plan the shoot

Define your shot list, goals, locations, and props. Know what you’re capturing and why.

2. Set up your space

Use natural light when possible or invest in lighting kits and reflectors. Use a white backdrop for standard product shots.

3. Stabilize your camera

Use a tripod for sharp, consistent angles—especially for ecommerce listings.

4. Shoot multiple angles

Show your product from the front, back, side, top, and bottom. Include close-ups and contextual shots where applicable.

5. Edit your photos

Adjust lighting, color balance, and crop. Remove backgrounds or retouch imperfections. If you’re not a pro editor, outsource this step.

What equipment do you need for product photography?

For product photography, all you really need is a smartphone camera. But for high-quality shots that convert shoppers, you’ll want a dSLR or mirrorless camera and 50 mm lens as the bare minimum. 

Here’s a general overview: 

Beginner (DIY at home):

• Smartphone with high-res camera
• Natural lighting near a window
• White poster board or sweep background
• Free editing tools (Snapseed, Lightroom Mobile)

Intermediate:

• DSLR or mirrorless camera (50mm lens recommended)
• Tripod and remote shutter
• Lightbox or softbox lighting kit
• Reflectors and diffusers

Pro-level / studio setup:

• Macro or tilt-shift lenses
• Studio lighting with modifiers
• Professional backdrops or sweep tables
• Grip gear (c-stands, clamps)
• Pro editing software (Photoshop, Capture One)

Tips and best practices for better ecommerce photos

While your product photos should reflect your unique brand and appeal to your specific target audience, there are a few universal truths and best practices:

Get the gear

While smartphone photos may work for social posts or email, you want high-quality photos for main product pages. Invest in a high-quality camera and lens or hire a professional who has their own equipment to shoot your photos for you.

Choose your background wisely

Some ecommerce marketplaces require plain white backgrounds, and if you’re shooting for other channels you have more leeway. Whatever the background, it should reflect the aesthetic you’re after while keeping the focus on the product.

Think about the context

Consider the context for your products and for your shoppers. It’s important to show the product in use, using models and contextual backgrounds and props. But it’s also important to consider the context in which your shoppers are viewing the photos. If they’re on mobile (they likely are), offer zoomed-in shots and closeups of important product features.

Maximize your investment

Shoot with repurposing in mind. Professional product photos are a significant investment, and you want to make the most of it. Think about using your product photos on more than just ecommerce pages, but also in digital marketing and ad campaigns, on social media, in emails, and for labeling or packaging.

Leverage symmetry for a premium feel

Symmetry isn’t just pleasing to the eye—it can instantly elevate the perceived value of your product. For items with naturally balanced design elements (like cosmetics, shoes, tech, or jewelry), a symmetrical composition reinforces order, precision, and quality. Center the product, align key features, and shoot head-on for maximum effect. When used intentionally, symmetry creates a polished, editorial-style aesthetic that feels high-end and trustworthy.

Remember the details

It’s always important to edit your photos afterwards, no matter how great the original shot is. You may have to fix imperfections that have the potential to distract potential buyers and negatively impact conversions.

Outsource the tedious bits

Lots of photo edits, like background removal and color changes, are so detail-oriented and time-consuming. It can take an entire day just to edit a small batch of photos. If you find your time is bogged down with post-processing, consider outsourcing the edits. Be wary of any providers that use automation and AI, as they run the risk of imperfections the human eye won’t miss.

Enjoy it

At the end of the day, it’s important to have fun. Even though you have constraints on what you can do with the images, you can still get creative with it. Use outsourcing and other ways to take some of the stress out of your day to day so you can find your passion and get back to the work you love. 

Enlist your dedicated virtual photo-editing team of designers who complete every edit by hand

3 product photography examples

Looking for some inspiration from real-world brands with compelling product photos that can inspire your own visuals? Here are three examples:

1. Grounded Plants

The Grounded Plants brand has such a distinct look and feel, and the product photos are a continuation of that. The backgrounds are plain so not distracting but interesting enough to fit with its overall aesthetic. Plus, variety breaks up the monotony of a single hue.

2. Otherland

Candle brand Otherland has a creative touch to its product photo backgrounds. It stages shots of its candles with fun props and backgrounds to evoke different moods for each candle.

3. SOKO

SOKO sells jewelry that was handcrafted with sustainable materials in Nairobi, Kenya, so the magic is in the details. And the details aren’t lost when it comes to its product photos. The perfect mix of white background, detailed, and lifestyle shots, SOKO’s photos are as beautiful as the designs themselves.

Product photography courses

There are tons of product photography courses out there—ranging from beginners to advanced, and many specializing in specific niches.

Here are some product photography courses worth checking out:

• Product Photography for Ecommerce, Shopify Academy (free): Learn how to take product photos to sell online, including white background shots, home studio setup, and step-by-step process to outsourcing. 
• Product Photography at Home, Craftsy ($29.99): Professional photographer and small-business owner Jessica Marquez leads the course. You’ll learn how to create tabletop setups for product shoots, including lighting, backgrounds, working with models, and post-production.
• Shoot Products Like a Pro, Phil Stills (£197): 13 short modules take you through everything from lighting and studio setup to white backgrounds and cut-outs. You can try the first two modules for free.
• Mobile Product Photography Class, Weebly (free): This product photography course shows you how to capture shots with your smartphone. The course is from 2017, so while some of the tactics may be outdated, a lot of the principles still apply.
• Still Life Photography, UCLA Extension (?): Learn lighting and camera techniques, food and product photography, and basic Photoshop edits. This course is only available at certain times, so check back for enrollment information and updates.
• Rachel Kimberley, virtual: This professional photographer has various photography courses on her website, including courses for flat lays, makers, lifestyle, and product styling. 

13 product photography statistics

Below are some recent product photography statistics, studies, and surveys to keep your finger on the pulse:

1. The ecommerce photography market is worth $1 billion

Globally, the ecommerce product photography market is estimated to be worth $1 billion in 2024. It’s predicted to grow to $2 billion by 2033, with an annual growth rate of about 8%.

2. People process images in just 13 milliseconds

One MIT University study found that the human brain can process images after viewing them for just 13 milliseconds. That means they can process a product image just as quickly. Your product photos play a huge role in the first impression, so it’s important they’re high-quality.

3. People can recall 2,000+ images with 90% accuracy

One 2013 study showed people 2,560 photographs for a period of just 1 second. After viewing all the images, they tested the participants’ memory recognition. The participants were able to recall more than 2,000 images with at least 90% accuracy, even after a period of three days.

4. On a scale of 1 to 10 for difficulty, marketers rate producing visual content a 7

In one survey from Venngage, marketers were given the option to rank the difficulty of consistently producing visual brand content, with 1 being the least difficult and 10 being the most difficult. On average, marketers ranked this task a 7. 

5. Nearly half of marketers put 20–50% of their budget into visual content creation

In that same Venngage survey, marketers were asked about their marketing budgets. Nearly half (45.7%) said they put anywhere between 20% and 50% of their budget towards creating visual content. This is likely to increase—there was a 9.5% increase in marketers planning to put at least half of their budget towards visual content production by the end of 2024.

6. The photo printing market is worth more than $15 billion

Globally, the photo printing and merchandise market is worth more than $15 billion. It’s forecasted to grow at a CAGR of more than 5%. By 2027, it’s estimated to be worth more than $20 billion.

7. Photo prints and frames are the most popular types of photo products.

The following list shows the most-ordered printed photo products in 2023, from most to least:

• Prints
• Frames for wall decor
• Frames for table/desk
• Mugs
• Photo Cards
• Calendar
• Clock
• Albums
• Puzzle
• Notebooks
• Canvas, banners, and signs

8. 9 camera companies dominate the global market

The Global Digital Cameras Market Recent Trends, In-depth Analysis, Size and Forecast To 2027 notes nine top camera companies in the world:

• Canon
• Nikon
• Sony
• Pentax
• Olympus
• Fujifilm
• Casio
• Panasonic
• Samsung

9. 53% of businesses want to try AI image generators

AI product photography and editing is a trending topic. While the technology is far from perfect, more than half of businesses would like to experiment with using AI image generators, according to a survey from Semrush.

10. Ice Cream Castles shortened their photo-editing workflow from 7 days to 1 day

Children’s clothing brand Ice Cream Castles used to take an entire week to edit product photos before they were ready to use them. This took too much time they could’ve spent growing and improving the business—doing the things they love. They started outsourcing their edits and shortened photo edit turnaround time from 7 days to just 1 day. 

11. Formkraft took 5 days to shoot photos for their new website

Photography Prodoto shot product images for Formkraft’s new website that sells a range of merchandise and consumables. The shoot took five days and shot initial concepts for 18 Master Category images and four additional website banner images. It takes time to get high-quality shots!

12. Medalia paintings convert at 17% when they feature artist photos

A/B testing tool VWO’s customer Medalia sells Cuban and Haitian art online. They ran an experiment to see if featuring artist photos as well as product photos would boost conversions. It did. Products that featured artists converted 17.2% of the time compared to 8.8% without.

13. More than half of photographers start out as hobbyists

According to one survey, slightly more than 50% of photographers get their start with photography as a hobby. 

Now it’s time to edit your product photography

You don’t have to do it all yourself. Outsourcing your edits can help you launch faster, stay consistent, and focus on the big picture.

Path gives you a team of expert retouchers who complete every photo edit by hand—no AI, no cut corners. Just pixel-perfect images that convert.

Wish you could just hand this over to a pro? Surprise, you can.

LEARN MORE

Product photography FAQs

What is needed for product photography?

• Camera
• Lenses
• Lighting
• Tripod
• Background
• Reflectors and diffusers
• Editing software
• Props

What is the meaning of product photography?

Product photography is a subcategory of commercial photography that focuses on capturing high-quality images of products for marketing and promotional purposes. The images are used in advertisements, websites, catalogs, and other marketing materials to showcase the product in the best possible light.

What is the idea of product photography?

The idea of product photography is to give potential buyers a full impression of a product. In ecommerce, it essentially replaces the in-person product experience a shopper would have in-store.

What is the role of product photography?

The role of product photography is to help shoppers better understand the products they intend to purchase. It should showcase the product, build trust, enhance the brand image, boost sales, and ultimately reduce returns.

What is object photography?

Object photography is when you take a photo of an inanimate item. As such, product photography is technically a form of object photography—unless the product is living, like a succulent. In object photography, items are typically non-moving, or still.

The post What Is Product Photography? Types & Meaning (Updated 2025) appeared first on Path Edits.

Chris does most of his work on his own—but he shares the burden of photo editing with Path.

Challenge

Chris has been a photographer for roughly 16 years. He started shooting portraits of dogs and children, and then started to branch out into family portraits, headshots, and eventually product photography.

Chris landed himself an awesome gig with a big box supplier that represents several brands. One of the main brands he works with is a fishing lure company.

“They need the images clipped out, and with an alpha channel and path,” Chris says. An alpha channel allows you to adjust an image’s transparency levels.

But not all the photo editing companies out there offer the option of an alpha channel. And Chris didn’t have the time to learn how to do it himself. “I had no idea how to do the alpha channel, and I was going to have to learn,” he says. “I hate doing computer work.”

“I had no idea how to do the alpha channel, and I was going to have to learn. I hate doing computer work.”

Plus, he still has to juggle shooting for other brands and vendors, as well as his local portrait clients.

Solution

About three years ago, when Chris received this request to put fishing lure product photos on a white background with an alpha channel, he began his search for a professional photo editing company that could help.

But many didn’t offer the option of the alpha channel—or they were too expensive.

That’s when he found Path.

“I went with Path because they were able to accommodate the alpha channel,” Chris says.

Outcome

Path fit seamlessly into Chris’s workflow. “Now, I take the pictures and I let Path handle the clipping, the retouching, the shadow, and the alpha channel,” he says.

“Path was able to do the edits real quick,” Chris says. And he has time to focus on the more advanced and creative edits to the headshots side of his business.

When you ask Chris about the biggest advantage of working with Path, it all boils down to one thing: time.

“Path handles the time-consuming tasks of clipping a product. And then when I realized Path also touched up photos, that has really improved my life. I don’t know how to clip an image as well as y’all.”

“Path handles the time-consuming tasks of clipping a product. And then when I realized Path also touched up photos, that has really improved my life,” Chris says. “Also, I don’t know how to clip an image as well as y’all.”

This time allows Chris to focus on shooting amazing photos and find a healthy work-life balance.

“I have more time,” he says. “The touching up has saved tons of time.”

“I have more time. The touching up has saved tons of time.”

You can save time on your photo edits, too. Give Path a shot with our free trial—no credit card, no commitment.

Let us look after your image edits, so you can get back to the fun stuff. Try Path free.

LEARN MORE

The post Find Out How This Pro Product Photographer Uses Path to Find Balance in His Work appeared first on Path Edits.

Here are some tips on taking photos of jewelry and then how to edit jewelry photos to maximize their sales potential on your online store, marketplace, website, or social media.

Why is editing important for jewelry photography?

Whether you shoot jewelry product photography in a professional studio or at home, editing your images is a crucial step before using your product shots online. Making jewelry images look realistic is crucial for shoppers to know what they’re investing in. Metal, gems, and stones can also be difficult to shoot because they have reflections, shine, and you need to show their intricate details. 

Once you get to the photo editing stage, you can enhance even professional jewelry photography by highlighting its features and preventing imperfections from diminishing the impact of your product shots. You might also need to make edits or resize your jewelry photos to make them compatible with third-party marketplaces such as Amazon, social media, and other commerce channels.

Photo retouching can transform your photos into appealing, professional jewelry photos that will impress your customers and lead to sales.

Correct the basics: exposure and white balance

The first step for improving any product photo is to adjust its exposure and white balance—it’ll show the true color of the jewelry so shoppers know what it looks like before they buy.

Exposure lets you change the brightness of your photo from underexposed (too dark) to balanced and over-exposed (too bright). You want to ensure the product is clearly visible when you adjust the exposure.

You’ll find the Exposure slider in Adobe Lightroom’s Basic panel.

Tip: Double-click on the slider pointer to reset it.

White balance adjusts two components: temperature and tint. Adjusting white balance refers to neutralizing any light cast during your shoot. Every light source has a different color temperature, measured in Kelvin (K). Depending on the light source you used during the shoot, the image may look cooler/bluer, neutral, or warmer/yellower.

The temperature slider helps you adjust the temperature for a neutral look. For creative purposes, you can go cooler or warmer, but for product shots, it’s best to aim for neutral ecommerce jewelry photography.

The tint slider helps you make minor tweaks by adding magenta or green tint to fix any color balance issues from some light sources like fluorescent or neon lights.

In Lightroom, you can use the following:

• Pre-built White Balance presets: Select one of the White Balance profiles based on your shooting conditions. For example, if you shot using natural light, select Daylight, Cloudy, or Shade. Lightroom will automatically adjust temperature and tint. 

• White Balance Selector: After selecting the tool (the pipette icon), click on a neutral-color part of your image (white, gray, or black areas). Lightroom will adjust both temperature and tint based on your selection to bring it as close to natural as possible. If you didn’t get it right the first time, repeat the process or adjust the sliders manually. 

• Manual temperature and tint sliders: Change both sliders to match the product’s true colors. 

Here’s an example of an unedited image with adjusted exposure and white balance in Lightroom, before any additional retouching: 

Fix colors: hue and saturation

Customers want to see realistic photos of products. Just under half of returns happen because the product doesn’t match customer expectations based on the description, and this could include your photos.

Even after you’ve adjusted the exposure and white balance of your photo, you may still need to change or enhance product colors. Gold, for example, has many hues, so the color in the photo should be spot on.

How to adjust hue and saturation

Here’s how to adjust hue/saturation in Photoshop:

You can change the hue and increase or decrease color saturation in Photoshop using the same layer. Create a new Hue/Saturation layer by selecting Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation from the dropdown menu at the top. 

To make local changes (ones that only apply to the parts of the photo containing that color), click on the color selector (finger icon) and click on the color you want to work on in the photo. In the example below, we would work with the yellows after clicking on the ring. 

You can also select colors using the dropdown menu, like Reds or Yellows. Move the Hue and Saturation sliders to change the color. 

In this example, we changed the hue of the ring from yellow gold to rose gold. A simple hue change but it can transform the photo. 

Sharpen the details

You may not always get the details perfectly sharp during the jewelry photoshoot but don’t worry—sharpening in Photoshop can help fix it. Sharpening the jewelry details will help it stand out in the photo, and elements like stones, gems, and engraving will be more prominent.

Tip: Don’t go overboard—and only apply local sharpening (not to the rest of the photo).

To sharpen the details in your jewelry product photos you can use these Photoshop tools:

• Unsharp Mask
• Smart Sharpen
• High Pass filter (our recommendation) 

Add a shadow for 3D effect

If you’re shooting white background jewelry shots, you’ll want to add some sort of shadow in the shot. It will add dimension to your photos and make your product photos and store listings look professional. Getting the shadow right during the shoot can be difficult to master, but you can add it in post-processing.

There are different ways to use shadows in jewelry product shots:

• Drop shadow: Adds depth to the photo with a subtle drop shadow seemingly behind or next to the product. This is a great choice for jewelry shot on a flat surface, like rings, bracelets, and watches. The drop shadow follows the product’s shape, like in the examples below. 

• Floating shadow: Gives the illusion of a product hovering above the ground. Earrings, necklaces, and pendants are a great choice for this effect because these products would naturally hang if worn by a model, and a shadow would appear. 

• Reflection shadow: The reflective shadow is a popular choice for jewelry photos, but the other types may also apply. A reflective shadow gives the impression the product is on a glossy, mirror-like surface and adds a touch of luxury. 

• Natural shadow: A natural shadow makes it look like your product has organically cast a shadow on its background or surface, even if there was no light source during the shoot. This would work well for most jewelry products placed on a flat surface. 

• Enhanced existing shadow: If your product already casts a shadow during the shoot, you may want to keep it even if you remove or change the background. This is where an enhanced existing shadow comes in. It will retain the shadow and its shape but let you use the products with a different background.

How to add a reflective shadow

Let’s look at how to edit jewelry photos by adding a reflective shadow in Photoshop (this effect will work best for jewelry shot head-on, not at an angle):

1. Open your jewelry photo in Adobe Photoshop.
2. Duplicate the image of the jewelry in a new layer by clicking Layer in the top menu and selecting Duplicate Layer or using the CTRL + J shortcut for Windows (Command + J for Mac).
3. Flip the photo vertically by choosing Edit > Transform > Flip Vertically.
4. Move the duplicated, flip layer to sit just under the original object, like a reflection. Reduce the opacity of the mirror layer to see its positioning better.

• Apply a very small Gaussian blur by selecting Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur in the top menu.
• Draw a selection around reflection using the marquee tool. Make sure the top of the selection sits just below where the two images connect.
• Feather the edges of the selection and delete it.
• Apply a small natural shadow to the space where the object and its reflection connect. 

Add lighting effects to make the jewelry shine

Add a spotlight effect to photos when you want jewelry to stand out from the scene. The spotlight effect slightly darkens the photo around the product, so all the attention goes to the jewelry—take a look at this step-by-step guide on how to do this yourself.

You can also create a lens flare effect to add sparkle to shiny jewelry and gems—but use it sparingly so the effect doesn’t overpower your photo.

How to add a lens flare

To add a lens flare:

1. Open your jewelry photo in Photoshop.
2. Duplicate the image in a new layer by clicking Layer in the top menu and selecting Duplicate Layer or using the CTRL + J shortcut for Windows (Command + J for Mac).
3. In the top menu, select Filter > Render > Lens Flare.
4. Select one of the four lens types (each creates a different effect) and adjust its brightness.

• Click OK and adjust the layer’s opacity if you want to reduce the effect further.

 Reduce distracting or overbearing glares

On the contrary, you can also reduce distracting or overbearing glares. For example, if you’ve caught the reflection of your camera (or something else that shouldn’t be in the photo) on a shiny surface, like metal or glass. The same goes for a powerful flash that may have created a glare on jewelry.

You can do this using various photo retouching methods like:

• Clone Stamp tool, which takes pixels from one part of your image and you can paint them over the glare.
• Brush tool lets you paint over the glare with precision—you can adjust the Brush size, hardness, opacity, and color. 

Retouch any scratches, smudges, or other imperfections

You can’t guarantee jewelry at the shoot will be spotless. You may come across the following:

• Smudges from fingerprints
• Scratches on the jewelry
• Unwanted reflections
• Dust or specks on the camera lens

One of the simplest and fastest ways to get rid of any of these imperfections is by using Photoshop’s Spot Healing Brush. 

Click on the Spot Healing Brush tool in your Photoshop sidebar. Select the type of healing you want to apply—we recommend starting with Content-Aware. 

Change the brush size depending on what you want to remove in the image by clicking [ or ] keys on your keyboard. If these keys don’t work for your device, head to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts in your navbar at the top. Select Tools in the Shortcuts For dropdown and scroll to the bottom to find shortcuts for Increase / Decrease Brush Size. 

When you use Spot Healing Brush, zoom in for a more precise result. Simply brush over any imperfections, and the software will remove the blemish or spot and replace it with pixels sampled around the area.

Using this method, we removed the photographer’s reflection in the necklace photo below. 

If it doesn’t look right the first time, repeat the process, change the brush size (or zoom in more), or select Create Texture or Proximity Match as the brush type. Remember that depending on the imperfection, you may need to use the tool several times to fix the photo.

You can also use the Clone Stamp tool to take an existing part of your image and “paint” it over another image area: 

1. Select the Clone Stamp tool and hover over the area you want to take a part of the image from.
2. Hold down the ALT key (OPTION on Mac) while you click over your selected section.
3. Move your cursor over to the area you want to paint the cloned part and paint as you would with the Brush tool. 

Change the background

There are a few instances where you might want to change the background of your jewelry photos:

• You’re selling on third-party marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, or Walmart and need white background shots to comply with the marketplace image requirements.
• You want an online store with a uniform look and give shoppers an easy, distraction-free product exploration.
• You want a transparent background for your jewelry shots to use for overlaying stock photos, graphics, or the brand’s website.
• You want different color backgrounds to fit a variety of marketing campaigns or to match the website’s color scheme. 

You can also put jewelry on a colored or creative background, like on the ethical jewelry brand SOKO’s website. With the background removed, your jewelry photos become versatile visual assets you can use for different marketing channels. 

To put jewelry on a white or colorful background (or add jewelry to stock photos in Photoshop), you have to cut it out first. Use clipping paths or image masking depending on object complexity.

Create a clipping path

Here’s how to create a clipping path:

1. Set up your Pen tool in Photoshop.
2. Draw a path around your product (zoom in to get a more precise path).
3. Save and name your path.
4. Create a clipping path.
5. Create a selection from your clipping path.
6. Create a clipping mask to isolate your product from its background. 

Crop for the right context

Some jewelry shots require cropping to get tight on the product, fill the frame, and showcase small details.

Generally, you want the product in the center, filling most of the frame. This is a common method for ecommerce marketplaces and stores. For example, jewelry brand Kendra Scott crops and fills the frame regardless of the jewelry type or size. This makes for an easy browsing experience. 

If you create a homepage banner, give plenty of blank space on one side so you can overlay text, a call to action (CTA), or leave it blank. Catbird jewelry store fills the space with promotional text and a CTA. 

To show the craftsmanship of jewelry pieces, cropping in even tighter for closeup shots will draw attention to the small details and design. Mejuri uses a closeup photo of a ring to share the brand’s commitment to sustainability and quality. 

For some jewelry model photography, consider cropping out the model’s facial features to direct focus to the jewelry, like Mejuri on its homepage. A customer’s gaze will naturally be drawn to the jewelry piece. 

Add filters for social media

Filters can add a unique, cohesive look to your social media feed, especially when they’re on-brand. While they’re generally not ideal for your website (you want to reserve that space for the highest-quality shots), social media is where you can be more adventurous with visuals to see what appeals to your target audience.

Some ideas you can use:

• Color filters (like a yellow filter to add warmth to the photo)
• Black and white layer (for a timeless look)
• Overlay with black and reduce the layer’s opacity for a muted look (works well for adding text copy over the photo) 

You’ll find these filters and presets in Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop, or use photo editing or social media apps with editing features like Instagram.

Keep the edited photos aligned with your brand aesthetic to maintain consistency. A great example of this is the handmade jewelry brand Mountainside Made. All of the brand’s jewelry photos have a warm tone, muted shadows, and plenty of grain on the photo for an organic feel.

Change color for new variants

You may get a new color variant for your jewelry stock, or you may want to change the color of another element in your photo, like the background or props. You don’t have to worry about re-doing the photoshoot because you can easily change the color in Photoshop.

In the first example, we changed the color of the background flowers to blue, matching the gems on the ring. 

But you can also change the color of the jewelry. Here, we made color changes only to the gems from blue to red, without altering the flowers in the background.

How to change color

There are several ways to change the color of a product variant in Photoshop. A simple one includes adjusting the hue of a particular color in your photo:

1. Open your file in Photoshop.
2. In the top menu, click on Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation.
3. Select the color you want to change by using the pointer icon and clicking on the color in your photo or choose one from the dropdown menu, like Blues.
4. Move the Hue slider to create your new color. Use the Saturation slider to fine-tune its vibrancy.
5. To remove this effect on other parts of your photo, click on the layer’s mask and select the Brush tool. Make sure its opacity is at 100% and paint over sections that don’t need the color change.

For more complex items like multi-colored jewelry, repeat the steps above several times or use more advanced retouching methods.

Get the best jewelry photography with a pixel-perfect finish

Photo editing is an essential step before presenting your product photos online because shoppers will use them to decide which jewelry pieces to invest in. A few editing steps can go a long way to take your photos from good to great. If you prefer to leave it to professional editors, our team can assist you. 

Let our pro designers look after your most tedious image edits, from 25¢ per image

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How to edit jewelry product photos FAQs

How do you edit jewelry photos?

Start with a clean-up to remove any blemishes. Adjust image exposure and colors for a natural look. Add any extras like shadows and reflections, and export your photo for the platform you will use.

What is the best photo editing app for jewelry?

• Snapseed
• Photoshop Express
• Lightroom CC Mobile
• Afterlight 2

How do you make jewelry stand out in pictures?

• Adjust colors, white balance, and brightness
• Sharpen the small details
• Remove blemishes like fingerprints or scratches
• Crop for maximum impact

Is there an app for taking pictures of jewelry?

You can use your smartphone’s default camera app and turn on the macro setting. Alternatively, try camera apps with manual controls like Camera Zoom FX, Halide Mark II, ProCamera, and Camera+ Legacy.

What is jewelry photo retouching?

Jewelry photo retouching means enhancing a photo with professional editing tools. You can remove any specks or dust, correct the color to appear natural, and enhance the shine and sharpness of metal and gems.

How do you make jewelry sparkle in photography?

The best way to photograph jewelry so it sparkles, is to use good lighting. Diffused light will help avoid harsh reflections and soft shadows. Position the light source at an angle to create highlights, and use a reflector to add brightness. Macro jewelry photography with a dedicated macro lens or close-up mode enhances detail, and slight adjustments in post-processing can boost the sparkle.

The post How to Edit Jewelry Photos to Make them Shine (Updated 2024) appeared first on Path Edits.

Unlike apparel, cosmetic products are small. Their shine, shimmer, and color saturation might translate poorly from in-person to on-screen. That’s where photo editing comes in.

With some simple tweaks, you can enhance beauty product photography to showcase each item at its digital best. Whether you’re shooting products yourself or working with a photographer, we’ll walk through some editing techniques to make colors pop, fix reflections, and retouch surfaces for a spotless and ecommerce-ready look that converts.

How to shoot makeup products

Like other commercial photography, mastering makeup product photography can take years. But that’s not to say you can’t create product photography that stands out and drives sales. Putting a few shooting and editing tips into practice can make a big difference, even on a small budget or with a DIY approach.

And while photo editing certainly can do some magic, you’ll almost always get the best results if you have a decent original shot to work with.

Clean the product and background

It’s always important to work with clean products, and makeup in particular. This includes the exterior and the actual makeup product itself.

You can expect sticky, shiny, and liquid products to attract dust, hair, and dirt, so make sure your shooting space is as clean as possible too. Use cotton gloves to avoid leaving marks or sweat on products when you style your shots.

Reduce distracting reflections and glares in the studio

Shooting cosmetic product photography of items with matte surfaces will be easier because they reflect less light. However, many makeup products come packaged in reflective materials like plastic, metal, and glass.

To reduce unwanted reflections and camera glare when photographing these products, try these lighting tips:

• Clear the studio: Remove any other shiny or reflective surfaces and turn off any artificial lights and block any natural light you don’t need for the shoot.
• Remove unnecessary packaging: Unwrap solid products packaged in transparent plastic, such as beauty blenders, for a sharper, clearer photo with no reflections.
• Use diffusers in your lighting setup: Softboxes or white screens in front of a window produce softer light and help eliminate hotspots and light reflections.

A great example of capturing challenging cosmetic products in a pleasing way is beauty brand Minori. Its product bundle includes both matte and reflective packaging, but none of the surfaces have distracting reflections in the photo.

Include cosmetic swatches

Cosmetic swatches are small amounts of a makeup product like lipstick or eyeshadow. They’re common in makeup product photography because they show the true color, texture, and pigmentation of the product. Swatches make it easier for shoppers to compare different products or shades of the same product.

You can photograph swatches on a plain background, such as paper or cardboard. Your background doesn’t necessarily need to be white. For example, Annabelle Minerals uses a heavily layered swatch for its blush on a light peach background.

Showing swatches on the model’s skin, such as on the inner forearm, displays how the product looks on different skin tones, like on the lip and cheek rouge listing from Pure Anada.

For solid beauty products, like pencils, crayons, and eyeliners, you can get creative by drawing lines in varying intensities on a plain background, like The Detox Market which showcases Ere Perez’s lip crayon swatches.

Don’t forget to shoot close-ups

Adding to the variety of your product shots are close-ups. Shooting a product in its full size and cropping it later won’t result in the same look and quality as shooting it up close. Reason being that an intentional close-up will ensure the product is perfectly in focus, producing sharp details.

That’s not to say you need to use a close-up shot straight from the camera. You’ll likely consider cropping the photo to emphasize the product and remove any distractions, like in Elate Beauty’s brow and liner brush product listing below.

Style shots with props

Including your brand’s props and product styling during the beauty product photography shoot will help you avoid complex editing later on. For example, Pure Anada uses foliage elements in every eye shadow listing.

To recreate this in post-processing requires advanced skill, especially to make your props look realistic. So, if you already know props are a must-have for your cosmetic product photography, use them during the shoot if possible.

How to edit cosmetic product photography for a professional result

While you can take steps during the shoot to help you create a beautiful product photo, images straight from the camera are rarely publish-ready. This means editing is a necessary part of preparing your photos for use in ecommerce, on social media, and elsewhere online.

The purpose of editing for ecommerce and marketing is to enhance your products while keeping their true appearance intact for buyers. Read on for post production tips that make all the difference for your beauty and skincare product photography shots.

Remove background

Background removal eliminates any distractions around the skincare and cosmetics product—regardless of where you shot it—turning the cut out product into a flexible asset you can repurpose.

A popular method for beauty product photography is adding a white background. Marketplaces like Amazon require sellers to use it for all products, but doing so brings visual consistency to any online store. You can also use the product with other backgrounds, including transparent, combine several products to create item groups, and much more.

Color correct for accuracy

Accurately describing your products is just one part of giving customers all the information before a purchase. Photos also need to match what they’ll receive in their order. With over 64% of product returns happening because the item didn’t match what’s on the listing, it’s a simple fix that will save you from unhappy customers and money spent on refunds.

How do you put this into practice? Focus on minimal edits. Matching makeup products to the skin is already difficult, but accurate colors in photographs make it easier for online shoppers. Also, ensure image white balance is neutral—you can read more about it in this product editing guide.

Remove any blemishes or imperfections

You may notice some smudges, spots, or marks in your photos that you missed during the shoot. They may be on your products, in the background, or on the model’s skin or clothing, as in the example below.

But all it takes is a spot removal using Photoshop:

• Spot Healing Brush: use it to brush over any imperfections, which the software will replace with pixels sampled around the area.
• Clone Stamp: you can copy an existing part of your photo and “paint” it over the blemish.

If your cosmetic product photography needs more advanced editing or you’re tasked with a large volume of images to fix, you can outsource it to a team of experienced editors.

Create a lifestyle composite

We mentioned removing the background for your beauty products, but did you know you can create completely new images using lifestyle composites? The method involves taking a cut-out product and placing it on a contextual stock photo, like a makeup kit added to an image of a bathroom cabinet.

Lifestyle composites can save you time and money otherwise spent on organizing a new photoshoot. However, for the composite to look natural, you have to pay particular attention to:

• Shadows: For a beauty product to fit in a new scene, add shadows that match where the light source may be in the stock photo.
• Colors: You may have shot your entire product in neutral light, but the stock photo may have a warmer or cooler look. This means you have to correct the color for both separately.
• Perspective: If you photographed a product head-on, look for stock photos that match the angle of your product shot. For some images, you’ll be able to skew the product perspective using Photoshop.
• Size: A product that looks too large for the background will stick out like a sore thumb. Consider other elements in the shot to help you correctly size the product to match its real-life dimensions.

Lifestyle composites can be complex to create. However, you can outsource to product photography studios that specialize in them.

Design a collage for an advertisement

Like lifestyle composites, background-free product shots are perfect for creative marketing assets like collages. The difference is, collages don’t require advanced photo editing skills. You can easily create them in apps like Canva.

Using your brand’s colors and typography, you can design a simple collage like on Elate Beauty’s Instagram page. You can reuse your background-free product shots in so many different ways without ever having to repeat a design.

Create product infographics

Product infographics combine photography and graphic design elements to offer a playful and informative way to present product information. If you want a creative way to share your product benefits or ingredients without using walls of text, that’s where infographics come in. All you need is to pick a background, add a product with a transparent background, and include text.

Graphics like these are also popular in marketplaces like Amazon. Vegan beauty brand Ecco Bella uses an infographic in its own online store. In just a few seconds, infographics give buyers a convenient way to learn about products before reading descriptions.

Remove labels or logos

Some marketing visuals may call for logo-free product shots. You can remove the product label or logo using Spot Healing Brush or Clone Stamp in Photoshop—the same Photoshop tools used for removing blemishes.

Add brand labels or logo

On the flip side, if your logo has changed since the photoshoot or if the product sample used in the shoot didn’t have the logo-facing side towards the camera, you may want to add it.

Similar to creating a lifestyle composite, you’ll have to ensure the logo or label matches the surface you place it on. For example, if you’re adding it to a glass jar, you’ll have to bend or skew the logo for it to align with the shape and look natural. You can follow this video tutorial to learn how to create this effect.

Add shadows for a subtle 3D look

White background ecommerce shots may be fit for online stores and marketplaces, but they can also look flat if that’s all you use. To fix that, adding a shadow, like a subtle drop shadow, will help your products stand out from the background and look more realistic.

Create color variants

If your products come in different colors, you can create color variants of the same product. The result will be a uniform look in your store, apart from the color changes in each photo. You’ll also save time setting up a shoot whenever new color variants come in stock.

One method to do this in Photoshop involves adjusting the hue of a particular color in your product photo:

1. Open your product image in Photoshop.
2. In the top menu, click on Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation.
3. Select the color you want to change by using the pointer icon and clicking on the color in your photo or choose one from the dropdown menu, like Reds.
4. Move the Hue slider to select your new color. Use the Saturation slider to fine-tune its vibrancy.
5. To remove this effect on other parts of your photo, click on the layer’s mask and select the Brush tool. Make sure its opacity is at 100%, and paint over sections that don’t need the color change.

For more complex color changes, you can repeat the steps above several times—targeting a different part of the photo each time—or outsource to professional photo editors.

Crop to fill the frame

Close-up cosmetic photography often still needs manual cropping in Photoshop or any other photo editing app—this helps eliminate unnecessary details in the shot and takes focus straight to the product. Square crop is particularly effective for centering your product and filling the frame to grab attention, like in the example below by beauty and skincare brand Tower 28.

Photoshop’s Crop tool has built-in ratio templates and a grid to create pixel-perfect crops every time. First, select the Crop tool in your sidebar. Then, click the dropdown in the top menu and select 1:1 (Square).

You’ll see a crop grid overlaying your image. You can adjust it by moving the image or cropping it further to fit your photo. The middle square helps you find the center of each photo if you want your product to be in the middle.

Align products for a uniform look

Cropping and centering each product creates alignment in your online store, particularly when viewing all product ranges together. It helps guide the shopper to compare products rather than get distracted by odd, uneven framing.

Clean beauty brand Tower 28 has different types of products in its store, but all listings look central. How do you achieve this?

If you know the image dimensions used for displaying products in your online store, you can use those same dimensions to create visual consistency—centering each product in the frame evenly, even if the actual products are different sizes in real life.

You can also find the image size your store is using by right-clicking on any existing product image and choosing Save image as… to download it. Open the downloaded file and look at the image properties for the pixel dimensions. Make a note of this size.

For example, we’ll use 600 pixels as width and 700 pixels as height.

1. Open your product photo in Photoshop.
2. Click on the Crop tool in the sidebar.
3. In the crop dropdown menu, select W x H x Resolution.
4. Add the correct pixels in the two boxes to the right of the dropdown, starting with width.
5. In the same dropdown menu, click on New Crop Preset and give it a name.

Now every time you crop photos for your store, you can use the same crop template. Use the crop grid to help you center your products. This way, regardless of product size, you’ll be able to center them each time and create an appealing, uniform look for your store.

Improve your makeup product shots for growing sales

The beauty ecommerce market continues to thrive, with order volume up 10% in 2022 alone. To stand out from the competition, you need product shots that look professional and give shoppers what they want before clicking “buy.”

With some simple editing techniques, you can elevate your beauty product photography even on a DIY budget. But if you need something more advanced or want to save time and effort, our team of professional editors is ready to help refine your shots and let your products shine.

Let us look after your image edits, so you can get back to the fun stuff. Try Path free.

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Beauty product photography FAQs

How to photograph makeup products?

To photograph makeup products, focus on the following:

• Lighting: Use soft, diffused lighting to avoid harsh shadows and reflections. Natural light or a lightbox can work well.
• Background: Opt for a clean, simple background that doesn’t distract from the product. White or pastel-colored backdrops often work best.
• Angles: Capture different angles to highlight the product’s packaging and features. Flat lays, close-ups, and angled shots can add variety.
• Props: Minimal props that complement the product can add context without stealing attention from the makeup item itself.
• Editing: Post-process the images to adjust brightness, contrast, and sharpness, ensuring the colors of the product are true to life.

How to do makeup photography?

Makeup photography involves capturing the application and effect of makeup on models. Here’s how to do it:

• Lighting: Use soft, even lighting to flatter the subject’s skin and bring out the makeup details. Ring lights or softboxes are great options.
• Focus on details: Highlight the makeup details such as eye makeup, lips, and overall complexion. Close-up shots can capture the texture and finish.
• Model preparation: Ensure the model’s skin is prepped and primed for a flawless look. Retouching may be necessary to remove blemishes while keeping the makeup intact.
• Angles and posing: Experiment with different angles and poses to capture the best aspects of the makeup. The model’s expression should complement the makeup style.
• Background: A neutral background helps keep the focus on the makeup. Consider using plain, complementary colors or out-of-focus backgrounds.

How to take pictures of skincare products?

Skincare product photography should emphasize the product’s packaging and ingredients. Here’s how to do it:

• Lighting: Use bright, natural lighting to create a clean and fresh look. Ensure the lighting doesn’t create unwanted reflections on the packaging.
• Background and props: A clean background (often white) works well, but you can also add elements like fresh leaves, towels, or water droplets to give a spa-like feel.
• Textures: Highlight the texture of the product by showing it on a surface or applied to skin, which can be done through macro shots or close-ups.
• Angles: Capture the product from multiple angles to show the packaging details and branding clearly.
• Editing: Ensure the colors are accurate and adjust the brightness to keep the images looking fresh and clean.

How to take cosmetics pictures?

To take cosmetics pictures, pay attention to the following:

• Lighting: Ensure soft, even lighting to bring out the true colors and textures of the products. Avoid shadows that can distort the appearance.
• Background: Choose a simple background that complements the product. Gradient backgrounds or solid colors work well for cosmetics.
• Composition: Arrange products creatively, considering balance and symmetry. Group similar products together or create a flat lay with complementary items.
• Props: Use minimal props that match the product’s branding, like brushes, flowers, or fabric swatches, to enhance the composition.
• Editing: Post-process to refine the image, adjust the color balance, and make sure the product appears as it would in real life. Avoid over-editing, as it can misrepresent the product.

The post How to Shoot and Edit Creative Makeup Product Photography appeared first on Path Edits.

But if they come across a listing with a poorly edited product photo, it could make or break their purchase decision. They might be distracted by the glare of plastic product wrapping, spot a necklace with visible scratches, or a kitchenware set with photographer reflections on the metal surface. Those products will stick out like a sore thumb for all the wrong reasons.

Many products have challenging shiny, reflective, or transparent surfaces, so it helps to know how to shoot and edit them for a professional result. Look at some tips and tricks to help you create high-quality product photos that lead to sales—even on a DIY budget.

Examples of reflective products

Not sure which products can create unwanted reflections? There are actually more than you might think. Shiny, reflective, or transparent products might include:

• Jewelry
• Watches and other accessories
• Glassware and kitchenware
• Electronics
• Cosmetics and skincare products
• Sports equipment
• Office stationery
• DIY tools for gardening, painting, and other activities
• Fabric or materials such as leather, transparent polymers, and others
• Packaging and containers
• Labels and stickers 

How reflections and shine affect your product photography

There’s no doubt that shiny, reflective, and transparent products can be tricky to photograph and edit. But there’s more—some products also have unique shapes, which makes photographing and editing even more challenging.

For example, long-lasting product retailer Buy Me Once has a listing for a stainless steel garlic press. 

Even though the garlic press is reflective and has a complex, uneven shape, the photo shows no unwanted reflections, and you won’t find any scratches or fingerprint smudges on the metal. The product photo may look simple, but creating a picture-perfect finish like this takes careful consideration.

A few things to keep in mind when shooting and editing photos that feature shiny or reflective products are:

• Prevent unwanted reflections
• Watch out for blemishes, dust, and scratches (or remove those during editing)
• Avoid light spots that are either too bright or reflect on the product surface
• Retain any important product detail, such as a brand logo on a container or the transparency of a glass product
• Use just the right amount of reflection so the effect looks natural without being distracting 

When to use reflective lighting

Sometimes you want a reflective lighting setup. There are instances where adding shine can enhance the image. Look at clean cosmetics brand RMS Beauty. Light reflects on the cream in the brand’s product photo, emphasizing its texture. It’s appealing because all product details are still visible, despite the added shine. 

Similarly, an intentional sheen can add a sense of freshness to food and drink products, like in the example below from London Fermentary, a fermentation specialist. The effect is subtle but adds dimension and vibrancy to the glass bottles, as does the reflection on the white surface. 

Look at some image samples online before you shoot your products to have a better idea of what the outcome will be. It will help you prepare and set up your composition and lighting equipment.

How to prepare your studio setup for shiny or reflective products

First, organize your studio space and have the right tools handy to avoid complex photo editing later on. Some things to look out for include:

• Reflections of unwanted light, color, people or objects around your studio setup
• Harsh light that changes the look or color of your product
• Missed key parts of your product, such as labels or other details that have become blurry or obstructed because of a reflection or bright light
• Smudges, fingerprints, and scratches on the product surface

Clear the set

Start with a clutter-free setup for your product photo session. 

Only allow the people you need on the set. Otherwise, they may unintentionally block light, appear in product surface reflections, or even add light reflections of themselves. For example, if someone is wearing a watch or using their smartphone.

Remove or turn off any other light sources in the room. You might also need to block natural window light if you work with studio lights and want precise control over your light sources.

Clean the setup and your products

Make sure your products are clean after styling and positioning them. Shiny surfaces like metal or clear or colored glass will quickly pick up fingerprints, and dust will be easily visible in your photos. Microfiber cloths are handy for this.

You can also use a pair of cotton, microfiber, or latex gloves to handle your products and keep them stain-free. For electronic components, use anti-static gloves to avoid built-up static charges.

Take off the plastic packaging

Does your product come in cellophane or other similar transparent packaging? Consider taking it off for the photoshoot so shoppers can see the product without obtrusive material getting in the way.

For example, if you sell gift baskets, you should take pictures after you assemble them but before you wrap them in cellophane—the shiny material can make your products look less sharp in a photo.

You can do it like the eco-friendly product retailer Peace With The Wild. It has two photos of its grapefruit bath bomb. One shows the product up close (with added styling using petals), and the other photo displays the bath bomb in its transparent, branded packaging. 

Use basic product photography equipment

You don’t need an expensive studio setup to create professional photos that look great online. DIY your lighting setup with some of these basics in your photo kit:

• A sturdy tripod
• One light as a minimum, such as a studio light or a flashgun (if you’re on a tight budget, you can shoot using natural window light)
• At least one light modifier to diffuse the light, like an umbrella or a softbox (the larger the modifier, the more diffused the light, lessening the chances of glare)
• A modifier (such as a beauty dish or a grid spot) that creates a small, concentrated area for a strong, contrasted result
• A reflector and bounce cards or boards in black and white—you can start with an affordable, multi-use kit like this 5-in-1 reflector set
• A white backdrop for ecommerce product shots, a colorful backdrop for more creative photos, and something to place beneath your product—a board, plexiglass, fabric, or paper
• A level surface—such as a chair, desk, table, or floor—on which to place your products

How to photograph shiny products like metal and glass

With your studio kit ready, it’s time to start planning your equipment setup and compositions.

The main thing to remember is that it takes patience to build up to that perfect shot—from setting up your composition to adjusting your lights and camera settings. But the good thing is it becomes easier the more you do it, especially for similar products requiring the same type of setup each time. Consider taking a photo of your setup or drawing it in a notebook so you can recreate it next time.

Find the right angle

For reflective products, start by finding an angle that eliminates—or reduces to a minimum—any reflections of you, the camera, and any other equipment or people on the set.

You may need to tilt or move the product to get the right angle, or you can use props or craft putty to prop up an item like a ring or a watch.

For products with a mirror, such as this makeup palette by RMS Beauty, you can angle the mirror to reflect the product itself or a plain white background (or both). 

Position lights above the products

If you’re working with metal products like cutlery or jewelry, try positioning your light directly over them. This is a simple but effective method to create a soft light that works with various metal products of different shapes. 

• Set up a large softbox face-down directly above your products—look for lay flat or overhead boom stands or arms to hold your softbox
• If the dark edges of your softbox end up reflecting on the product surface, add a large, translucent diffuser (or white fabric) over the light to eliminate them
• You can also use a light with a diffuser at an angle for a more dramatic effect and shadows. For example, put the light on the opposite side of the camera, facing down at the product at around a 45-degree angle, like in this tutorial

A single light on the side of the product

If you have a plastic, acrylic, or glass product, like a bottle container, you can create a professional look with just one continuous light. You can even use your smartphone to shoot this setup if you’re on a budget.

Start by adding a softbox or a strip box facing the product on one side and a white foam board or a large V-flat on the opposite side of your light, like in this video. The trick is to move the light so its reflection on your product complements it, not obstructs the label or other details. Continuous lighting makes this easier because you can see the result instantly.

Experiment with different side lighting and angles to see what works for your product’s shape and design so you don’t obstruct essential elements like the brand logo. DASH Water, for example, has the light run across the left side of its sparkling water bottle. 

If your light is too strong, add a white material, like paper, fabric, or diffuser, between the light and the product. And, if you’re losing too much detail on the opposite side of the light, set up a white board or reflector on the other side, like in this video guide. It will reflect light and brighten your product’s opposite (dark) side.

Light on both sides of the product

If you have two lights, you can add a modifier, such as a softbox or a grid, to both and place them on the opposite sides of your product. You can start with both lights mirroring each other directly and then turning them slowly to find a result that works.

For example, turn the lights slightly towards the camera or angle them facing down towards the product, like in this video. Ultimately, you’ll get a result similar to the Gentle Folk Wines Rainbow Juice below. 

This setup works well to illuminate both sides of your product while keeping any central logos or labels visible. Do you need extra light in the center of your product? To get an evenly lit image, take another shot with a light facing the product’s front and merge all photos in Photoshop.

Illuminate transparent products

For any transparent products, such as perfume or beverage bottles with translucent liquid, it’s just as important to light what’s inside. You have a few options to try in a situation like this:

The first setup is to add a light behind the product (facing the camera) and two black boards—one on either side of the product. You can use a flash strobe, continuous light, or even a window light with white paper or fabric in front of it.

The two black boards on either side will add dark edges to the silhouette, like in the example below. 

The second option is to add a white background, like a white board big enough to cover your product. Then add a continuous light that shines a narrow beam towards the center of the board, like in this video. Add two black boards on either side of the product to create a silhouette similar to the setup above.

If you shoot products with a rim like a glass bowl, wine, or cocktail glass, lower your tripod and tilt up your camera. Doing so will create an appealing rim shape, like in the example below. 

For a more advanced setup, illuminate the product from behind using a flashgun, a studio light, or a softbox, and another light at the front. Add a white sheet between the product and the backlight for additional diffusion.

You don’t even need an extra stand for the frontal light, as shown in this tutorial because you can hold it in your hand and shoot using a remote or a timer. Then, all that’s left is to merge all photos in Photoshop.

Set up bounce cards or foam boards

You’ll inevitably come across surface reflections when photographing metal products or metallic packaging. Use cards, foam boards, and reflectors to correct or enhance your shots:

• Use a black card or reflector in front of the product to bring out any silver logo or text on the product or its packaging—experiment by changing the angle of the card or reflector.
• Use a white or black foam board (depending on which color complements your product) to avoid reflections. Cut a hole in it to fit your camera lens, and place it in front of your camera. This way, you will avoid reflecting your clothing or anything else behind the camera.
• Try a silver or gold reflector to add extra sheen to your products, depending on your metal type. Move the reflector around the product to find a complementary result.

Adjust your camera and light settings

It takes several test shots to get your camera and light settings spot on. During your test shots, consider the following:

• Lowering your light intensity level to reduce hotspots or blown-out highlights on your products
• Setting your camera to a smaller aperture between f/5.6 to f/16 to capture your products in full and avoid blurred-out labels or other details
• Changing the distance between the lights or diffusers and your products—this will create varying degrees of light intensity and softness

Give your camera an object to focus on

Shooting transparent or translucent products may make setting your camera focus difficult. A quick tip to solve that is to put something inside the product, such as a pen. Set your focus on the pen manually and remove it before you start shooting.

Show product transparency in lifestyle shots

In cases where product transparency is a key selling point, a lifestyle shot can make it easier for customers to see the product’s characteristics. Take the example of the Buy Me Once transparent speaker. Putting the speaker in front of the curtain makes it easy for customers to recognize the product is made of glass and to better envision how it’ll look in their home or office. 

Use a dulling spray to reduce shine and glare

If you want a more matte look for your shiny products, consider a dulling spray like the one from Krylon. It’s designed to add a temporary dull finish that reduces shine, and you can easily wipe it off after your shoot.

But be careful using it on porous materials, like product labels, because the dulling spray can make those look fuzzy or even ruin some colors or text. Instead, cover those before you use the spray. It’s safe to use on less porous materials like metal, glass, plastic, and acrylic.

Edit your product photography like a pro

Getting perfect product shots straight from the camera isn’t always possible. Sometimes you notice imperfections only after you open your product photo on your computer and see it on a bigger screen. Other times you already know you can’t fix some things during the shoot.

We have a few quick editing tips below to help you deal with some common shiny and reflective product photo problems.

Reduce glare

If your light is too bright, you can have light hot spots like in the example below. Sometimes, glare can add dimension to the product, but other times it’s too distracting. You can use Photoshop’s Clone Stamp tool to take pixels from one part of the photo and paint them over the part that has glare. 

Or try the Color Picker tool. Select a color sample from a part of the photo (like the green on the figurine) and then use the Brush tool to apply that color to the parts needing glare removal.

Edit reflections out

Even with careful preparation, you can find some ugly reflections.

Same as with glare removal, you can use the Clone Stamp in Photoshop to sample pixels and paint them over the reflection, like on the gold necklace below. Or use the Spot Healing Brush tool to let the software cover the reflections based on the surrounding pixels. 

Some photos require more complex editing. For example, the glass bottle below has both a window reflection and a distracting mix of red and yellow. If you want to leave more complicated fixes to professionals, our editors can retouch any reflections to save you time. 

Fix color cast on shiny metal

You have a few simple fixes if you have some light cast on silver products. The first option is to use Hue/Saturation Layer in Photoshop and select the color you want to remove, like yellow. Then, reduce that color’s saturation until you like what you see. You can use a Layer Mask to remove this effect from other parts of your image if required.

The second option is to use the Sponge tool in Photoshop. Ensure it’s set to Desaturate, and brush over the product areas with the unwanted light cast. In the example below, we used this method to desaturate any color on the metal straws. We also retouched the background with Healing Brush to remove any unflattering spots on the linen. 

Correct transparent products

Glass and clear acrylic products may show reflections or glare, especially if you work with natural light. It may be impossible to eliminate those during a shoot, but you can still fix them in post-processing.

Using the Clone Stamp tool, you can copy exact detail from other parts of your photo to another area. For example, to cover up reflections on a pair of glasses. In this case, we would take a sample of the pink background and add it over the glass where the reflection is visible. 

You can do the same for the black temples by zooming in for extra precision. The reason for getting in closer is to ensure you don’t accidentally go over the edges of the original area. 

Create composites

Shooting a perfectly lit product photo takes time, experience, and equipment. But even with just one light, you can fully illuminate your product by shooting several images and combining them in Photoshop.

Whether you use studio lights or natural light with a reflector, the trick is to move your light source around the product to ensure you’ve lit every part of it. It’s better to have more photos than not enough, so you can pick which ones to combine to create a composite image like in this tutorial.

Fix overly shiny skin

It’s not just products prone to shine and reflections—these imperfections can also show up in lifestyle photos. You might have models with overly shiny skin, especially if it was hot on shoot day.

If you work with a makeup artist, take a test shot and ask them to add a more matte finish to the model’s face or body if needed. Be mindful that smaller photography studios can get warm, especially if you use several lights. This means the model’s skin can become shinier during the shoot—you can ask the model to use a light mattifying powder or blotting paper if it becomes an issue. 

If you need to fix shiny skin in post-processing, use any mentioned tools, such as Spot Healing Brush, Clone Stamp, or a simple Brush tool with color sampled from a nearby image area.

When you’ve finished, zoom out and look at the final result from a distance—does it look natural? People’s skin has texture and natural shadows, so creating a realistic result can be tricky. Still, if you’re stuck, our editing experts can help. 

Get your photos ecommerce ready

After fixing any ugly reflections or shine, there are a few extra steps to ensure your product photos are ready for your website, social media, or ecommerce marketplace.

Put your photos on a white background

White background product photos are the industry standard for ecommerce stores. Removing the background in your product photos gives you several benefits:

• White background product shots comply with popular marketplace image requirements, such as Amazon
• You can easily remove any distractions in the background of your studio and swap them for a clean white or transparent background
• Product photos with a removed background are versatile marketing assets and can be repurposed with colorful backgrounds, graphics, or stock photos
• You can further enhance your images by adding shadows or lighting effects to your products 

Fix colors to show true look

You’ll likely need to do some color correction to ensure the products in your photos represent what they look like when customers purchase them.

For example, if you shoot during the golden hour (the first hour before sunrise and the hour before sunset), the light will be warmer, resulting in a more yellow photo. Your camera may also be manually set to shoot warmer images, or the camera auto function might pick up colors our eyes don’t notice. 

Use Lightroom’s White Balance profiles or White Balance selector to automatically set a natural white balance or adjust the sliders manually. Read our jewelry photo editing guide to learn more.

Retouch missed imperfections

Don’t forget to remove any other imperfections in the photo before using it online. Look for scratches, smudges, fingerprints, and dust for shiny products. These are generally simple to fix using Spot Healing Brush in Photoshop.

All you need to do is brush over the imperfection, and the tool will attempt to replace it based on the context and nearby pixels. It may take several tries to fix a more prominent spot, but you can zoom in closer for a more accurate result.

Add shadows for depth and a 3D look

Adding a shadow effect during post-processing can help your products stand out, particularly if you use white background shots for ecommerce.

White or transparent products will benefit from a subtle shadow so they don’t blend in with the background. Still, this effect can enhance any shape, material, and color product. For example, the organic silk brand Moonchild uses a drop shadow for its silk travel set product photo. 

Picture-perfect ecommerce shots that capture attention

Shiny products or packaging are integral to most types of ecommerce products. While it may be challenging to get the lighting right, and it may take time to edit out all of the imperfections, the finished result will catch the customers’ attention if done well. 

How to photograph reflective products FAQs

How do you photograph highly reflective objects?

Make sure the product is dust and smudge-free. Use diffused lighting, like a large softbox, to create soft, even light, and position the camera at a slight angle to avoid directly reflecting the light source or the camera.

How do you photograph reflections?

Position the camera or object at an angle for an appealing reflection. Use manual focus so all necessary image parts are in focus, and pick a higher aperture like f/11 for a sharp photograph. You can use white paper or foam boards to reflect pure white and avoid having to edit unwanted reflections.

How do you use reflectors in product photography?

To lighten any shadowed areas of your product, position reflectors opposite to your main light. Experiment with matte or highly reflective surfaces for different results. You can also use a black board or reflector to absorb any light and create a more dramatic light fall-off.

What is the best reflective surface for product photography?

Acrylic boards can work as inexpensive and flexible reflectors for product photography. You can also use them as the shooting surface for products like jewelry for a glossy, high-end result. Before you shoot, make sure they’re smudge and dust-free to avoid editing out imperfections later.

The post How to Photograph Reflective Objects & Products (Tips + Examples) appeared first on Path Edits.

If you own an ecommerce brand, you’ll want to hire a pro with product photography expertise. To avoid sticker shock (or get stuck with bad images), we’ll break down the costs of product photography and why it’s worth it to invest in a knowledgeable photographer.

How much does product photography cost in 2024?

Product photography costs vary depending on several factors including the type of product, the number of products you need photographed (most photographers discount bulk orders), the style you’re looking for (e.g., white background or lifestyle), and your turnaround time.

To give you a better idea of product photography rates, here are a handful of pricing structures (from real companies):

Products on White Photography charges anywhere between $29.99 and $39.99 per photo.

ProductPhoto.com is a bit more affordable, with product photography pricing available as low as $7 per image.

And Soona charges a starter pack of $39 for two images.

Finally, Squareshot has pay-as-you-go as well as membership plans which grant subscribers access to a certain number of monthly photos at a set price depending on their plan. The $39/month subscription gets you $40 per image pricing and two rounds of revisions, while the higher tiered plan costs $159/month plus $35/image.

You’re going to find a wide range of prices, partly due to differences in what’s included in the base cost.

You’ll find that many individual photographers don’t post their rates on their websites. Many times, you’ll need to reach out with information about the project. You might find some pricing, though. Denver-based photographer Leigh Germy, for example, charges $100/hour for product design—while her portraiture photography goes for $300/hour.

How much brands pay for product photography in 2023

To find out what real-world ecommerce brands pay on average per photo, we surveyed some business owners to get their insights.

Celestial Silk

Estimated cost per photo: $25–$80

CEO and founder of pillowcase brand Celestial Silk Danielle Jackson says she uses a combination of outsourced and in-house product photography. Whenever they need live models in the shots, they outsource the photos at $80 apiece. But for more straightforward and less complex images, they shoot in-house at about $25 each.

Lēto Foods

Estimated cost per photo: $90–$250

Lēto Foods, which sells smoothies for pregnancy health, knew the importance of investing in high-quality product photography to successfully launch their ecommerce brand. For most of the images, founder and CEO Amanda Gorter and her team shipped their products to an ecommerce photography company and paid $90/shot. They also worked with a local photographer and food stylist to come up with more creative and special shots—investing closer to $250/image for these.

Cooper’s Treats

Estimated cost per photo: $40–$60

Premium dog treat company Cooper’s Treats uses a photographer who charges $40 per shot plus a flat startup fee, which works out to be a total of about $50 per image. The photographer also sends over images they haven’t culled as the top shots, offering them at half the price. Cooper’s Treats receives edited images, though sometimes they have to crop for a specific use case like Facebook ads or marketing emails. Owner Alex Willen sometimes drives the products from San Diego to their photographer in Los Angeles, and other times they mail the products for about $30–$40.

Carigu

Estimated cost per photo: $9–$28

Australia-based chef gear and accessory brand Carigu outsources their product photography. The images are priced differently depending on the style of the shot. Traditional ecommerce photos—white background, for example—cost them about $9 per image. For more creative lifestyle shots, they pay closer to $28 per photo.

Moriarty’s Gem Art

Estimated cost per photo: $10

Jeff Moriarty of Moriarty’s Gem Art prioritizes product photography because it’s so important for capturing the details in their jewelry—essential for online shoppers looking for these types of items. They hire a local photographer to come to their business every week or two to take both photos and videos of their products. The photographer charges $50 per hour and gets about 5 shots per hour, coming in at about $10 per shot. Each shoot takes 4–6 hours, yielding 20–30 shots for a $200–$300 investment.

“The results of [our photographer’s] work are amazing. It leads to improved sales and conversion rates, so we will continue to invest in her.” – Jeff Moriarty, Moriarty’s Gem Art

Quality Logo Products

Estimated cost per photo: 75¢–$15

Quality Logo Products sells customizable promotional goods and takes a hybrid approach to their product photography. They invest more in unique photography, including 360-degree shots, for best selling products. For less popular items, they outsource the shots and skip the 360-degree views. On average, in-house product photos cost about $3 per regular image and $15 per 360-degree shot. Outsourced shots are much more affordable at about 75¢ apiece. “Our in-house production quality is also significantly higher than that of outside vendors, so it’s worth the money and effort,” says co-founder/president Bret Bonnet.

The Hussl Co.

Estimated cost per photo: $1.16

The Hussl Co. CEO Chase Scroggins hired a “skilled but amateur photographer” for $75/hour to shoot product images for his apparel company. He hired a model and also modeled the clothes himself. The photoshoot took two and a half hours (that’s $187.50 for the photographer) and he ended up with 162 usable shots, 20 of which have been useful for marketing materials and product listings.

Factors impacting product photography costs

Here are a few things you’ll want to note:

• White background: Is this included or an extra cost?
• Clipping path: Do they provide this with each image?
• Worldwide Royalty Free Unlimited Use: Are there image restrictions or licensing fees?
• File types: What is included in the base price?
• Turnaround time: Most pros charge extra for rush projects.
• Retouching: Do they include any basic edits?
• Travel fees: If travel will be required, discuss those fees right away.

Choose your photographer (or photography company) depending on your needs: Take your time frame, outsourced tasks, and products into account. And you don’t want to just go with the most affordable option. Budget is, of course, something to keep in mind, but product images can make or break an ecommerce venture.

Product photography costs

A lot goes into those pretty product shots. Photography equipment and space are expensive, an assistant might be necessary, and cameras and lenses require regular cleaning and appropriate storage. On top of that, there are yearly business costs (like marketing material and a website) and costs for professional photo editing software.

While pro photographers probably don’t want to calculate how much they’ve invested in their business, we’re going to break it down below, so you know exactly why and how photography fees are set.

Equipment

For most product photographers, equipment will make up the bulk of their expenses. Professional-quality cameras, lenses, and lighting tools are expensive.

Camera body

Estimated cost: $3,000–$5,500

Contrary to what most consumers imagine, professional-grade cameras are sold without lenses—and they’re expensive. A decent camera body will start at about $3,000, and many cost more.

We surveyed a small group of professional product photographers and found that over 60% of them spent between $3,000 and $5,500 on their main camera body. And most professional photographers own at least two camera bodies (a main one and a backup), although the backup camera might be cheaper or older.

Pro-quality camera bodies are built with more durable materials, they’re weather-sealed, have higher burst rates, larger buffers, better autofocus capabilities, dual memory card slots, and have GPS and WiFi technologies included. They’re also compatible with a wide assortment of high-grade lenses.

Lenses

Estimated costs: $1,000–$20,000

While most photographers will have just a few camera bodies, they’ll likely have a plethora of lens options. High-quality used lenses start at around $1000 each, and new lenses start at around $1500 each (and that’s considered a rather affordable price point). Generally, the jump from mid- to high-range prices is what separates enthusiast-quality lenses from professional-quality.

It’s not unusual for new, pro-grade lenses to go for $5,000 to $12,000 or more per lens. The photographers we surveyed spent anywhere from $10,000 to over $20,000 on their collection of lenses.

More expensive lenses usually have higher-quality glass, better sensors, more features, a faster autofocus motor, more effective subject isolation, and are weather resistant. The glass elements that are used in professional lenses go through more rigorous testing and have a more rigid inspection process. They typically have faster, constant aperture lenses that produce better images in low-light situations and product images with better color quality.

Props

Estimated costs: $1,000

To keep ecommerce product shots interesting, pro photographers keep a multitude of props handy. The cost varies greatly from a few bucks (think garage sales or thrift shops) to hundreds of dollars.

Bigger or more elaborate props like backdrops, floor drops, and rugs, can add up quickly. And due to the nature of product images, having a variety of blocks and boxes to work with is a necessity. Even if those props cost under $100 each, many product photographers probably have around $1,000 dollars worth of props at their disposal.

If you want to learn more about product photography props, take a look at this great resource: How to Prop Up Products With Blocks to Create Eye-Catching Product Photos.

Lighting

Estimated costs: $15,000

Lighting might be one of the most expensive additional items that pro photographers use. Why? Getting a great product image in a photography studio setting requires more than a good flash. Photographers also need to have light meters, reflectors, stands, boom arms, reflectors, balancer cards, and grips. The photographers we surveyed have spent over $15,000 on lighting equipment.

Curious about how that breaks down? A cheap stand costs about $100, but many quality stands cost over $500, and boom arms can cost around $1,000. A nice flash runs around $500 to $1000—the same goes for a nice light meter. Professional-quality light reflectors will be about $100 each. And the list goes on. Plus, professional photo studios will need multiples of most of these items, so it gets expensive quickly.

Miscellaneous equipment

Estimated costs: $1,000–$10,000

Along with lighting equipment, there are a whole bunch of other necessary items. Filters ($10 to a couple of hundred dollars), at least one camera bag (around $200), a shutter remote, spare batteries, and camera and lens cleaning supplies. Compared to other costs incurred, these are small-ticket items for photographers, but they’re absolutely necessary.

“My camera bag has roughly $8,000 worth of gear in it at any given moment,” says photographer Brendan Williams. There isn’t a shortcut to becoming a professional product photographer. It takes skill and usually a hefty financial investment, not only for equipment but also for studio space, employees, business expenses, and more.

Studio fees

Estimated costs: $500–$800/day

The cost of studio space depends on whether it’s rented or owned and the photographer’s location. If you own the space, the cost will depend on your mortgage situation. The photographers that we surveyed noted that a typical studio rental fee costs about $500 to $800 per day. Studio rental fees may or may not include some equipment use.

“Note: if you hire a professional photographer, they’ll likely have all this equipment. Likewise, if you’re outsourcing the whole thing (for example, shipping your products to a studio like Products on White Photography, you won’t need to pay for any of this equipment).”

People

Estimated costs: $25–$500+ per hour

When you’re paying for product photography, you’re not just paying for one photographer. The cost likely covers assistants, administrative staff, stylists, and possibly models.

One larger product photography company that participated in our survey said they regularly employ a few contractors and probably spend around $80,000 per year on their account manager, assistants, bookkeeper, etc.

Here’s an average breakdown of some of the manpower costs (just for the day of the shoot):

• Photography assistants: $15 per hour
• Models and talent: $50 or more per hour
• Hair and makeup stylists: $50 or more per hour, each
• Photo stylist: $25 or more per hour

Beyond shooting days, most businesses also have support, admin, or bookkeeping staff.

Hiring a photographer

A good photographer isn’t cheap, and hopefully, now you realize why. It’s a lot more than taking a few pretty pictures (although yes, you want to hire someone who can do that).

Interested in hiring a product photographer? Make sure you do your due diligence before making a decision: How to Hire a Product Photographer: 11 Questions You Need to Ask.

Professional photographers use different pricing systems:

• Hourly: $100 or more
• Day rate: $500 or more
• Packages: varies
• Subscription: varies
• Per photo: $25 or more (save money by buying a package)

Thoroughly review any prospective photographer’s rates and pricing structures. You’ll want a plan that will work with your ecommerce business as-is and the option to change plans as your business grows.

Are you a photographer that wants to explore a package pricing structure? Here’s how to build, price, and sell product photography packages.

Photographers work either freelance or in-house, which can impact pricing and the amount of work they can handle. Expect the same quality no matter how a photographer has set up their business, but understand that a solo freelance photographer will only be able to handle a certain amount of work. In-house photographers usually have a team to lean on.

Regardless of whether they work for themselves or a larger company, photographers that do high-end commercial work need to have an inventory of equipment and people at their fingertips.

Business expenses

Estimated costs: $2,900–$3,700

Like other companies, photographers have regular business costs:

• Business registration: $300–$600
• Computer: $1,500+ or more
• Website: $300+
• Marketing: $300+
• Insurance: $500–$1,000

One professional product photography company we surveyed spends over $10,000 per year on business costs. Again, this will vary depending on whether the photographer works freelance or in-house at a larger studio.

Post-processing

Estimated costs: $120–$700/year

In the grand scheme, easy photo editing software subscription costs are low-cost for product photographers. Photoshop, Lightroom, Canva, are all less than $700 per year each (and Canva is currently an affordable $120 a year). The real cost of post-processing is time.

Photo editing takes a skilled person and a lot of time. Of the product photographers that we surveyed, photo editing was one of the most commonly outsourced tasks—simply because of time constraints.

Image source

Outsourcing photo edits to a professional team like Path is a great way to keep costs down and maintain your high-quality standards. (Path pricing is transparent and straightforward with costs starting at 25¢ per image.) And outsourcing tasks such as photo editing can be especially helpful if you’re working with a freelance photographer (or you are a freelance photographer).

Storage

Since pro photographers have to maintain and share countless files, they also have to pay for image storage and organization solutions:

• Digital asset management (DAM) system: $350+ per year (a 2018 survey found that $51,999 was the average yearly DAM cost)

• Server space: $100–$300 per month for a smaller business
• Memory cards: around $100
• Memory card reader: around $20–$80
• Portable storage drive: roughly $100–$800
• Tech resources for maintenance: varies
• Cables for image transfers: around $10–$50

Where to save money vs. where to invest

Product photos aren’t something you want to skimp on, but there are a few ways to save a bit of money.

Moving forward with your product photography

That product photography quote that you received is probably looking a lot more affordable now. (Ahem, photographers, the new year would be a great time to raise your prices.)

Producing high-quality product images is expensive, but there are plenty of reasons it’s so costly. Those images are an investment in your ecommerce company and, for photographers, they’re the result of years of experience, a vast network, and a strategically built business.

The post How Much Does Product Photography Cost in 2024? appeared first on Path Edits.

When it comes to optimizing your product photos, you’ll need to think about the context in which they’re viewed. Not only do Amazon product images display on your main product page, but they also show up in search results, as thumbnails.

Get the complete guide to Amazon image size requirements for 2024.

Amazon image size requirements for 2024

When setting up new product pages or updating existing listings, you’ll need to meet the Amazon image guidelines and related technical requirements. If you don’t, Amazon won’t accept your listings and images, even if you have the best product images.

Technical requirements

Check out the technical Amazon product image requirements at a glance below, but remember it’s always best to check its site for the most up-to-date information and Amazon policy.

Other requirements to note for main product images include:

• Image size: Your Amazon picture sizes need to be at least 1000 pixels wide or tall, and 1600 pixels on the longest side. You can’t make your images bigger than 10,000 pixels on the longest side.
• Image frame: The product should fill 85% or more of the frame and not be cut off anywhere.
• Background color: ALL product photos should have a pure white background (RGB color values: 255, 255, 255).
• File format: You can upload JPEG, PNG, non-animated GIF or TIFF files. Amazon prefers JPEG.
• Color mode: Both sRGB and CMYK are accepted.
• File name: The file name must include the product identifier (this is your Amazon ASIN, JAN, EAN, 13-digit ISBN or UPC). After that, a period and a file extension (see accepted file types listed above). For example, 1234567890123.tif or A987654321.jpg. You may not include dashes, spaces or other characters in the file name.

You can also include up to eight additional photos to support your main photo.

Offer level images

If you’re selling used or refurbished products, an “Offer Level” or “Listing Photo” is also allowed on your product pages. This image displays on Amazon’s offer listing page, which helps customers differentiate your offer. To add your image, access your Amazon Common Template. Map the field termed as “Main Offer Image” and “Offer Images.”

Creative guidelines

Beyond adhering to Amazon product photography requirements, high-quality imagery will also make your products come to life for shoppers who can only view them through a screen. Some companies may opt to shoot their own product photos but there’s value in hiring a professional product photographer.

Using high-quality images for the main and child SKU images are particularly important for converting sales and receiving more clicks, but they’re also part of Amazon’s non-technical standards. These Amazon product images requirements are:

• Use real photos: The image must be an actual photo (or the cover art, in the case of music or books for example). Drawings, vectors and illustrations won’t be accepted as well as additional inset images, animated GIFs, graphics or text overlays. (Non-animated GIFs are acceptable.)
• Keep it simple: Anything in the frame that’s not directly related to the product risks becoming distracting to the potential buyer. Remove these from your Amazon product images.
• Aim for quality: Your Amazon product picture resolution should be high-resolution. Use sharp and well-lit product photos that look realistic. Pay special attention to how the colors look after they’re shot, as you don’t want any unpleasantly surprised customers.
• Be appropriate: Pornographic or offensive messages are prohibited from Amazon, so you’ll want to remove anything potentially risque from your shots. Check this tutorial to help you get rid of unwanted elements in Photoshop, Photomerge, or GIMP.

For shoes in particular, you’ll need to show only a single shoe, facing left at a 45-degree angle. No room for creativity here! Additionally, childrens’ clothing should be photographed flat without models, while apparel for adults should be worn and photographed on models.

Editing your Amazon product photos

If your photos require editing, you might consider hiring a professional photo editor, which can mean the difference between beautifully-detailed photos and Photoshop fails (which no business owner can afford).

Not sure if it’s time to outsource your photo edits or if you should keep doing them yourself? These are the 13 signs it’s time to get some outside help.

Here’s what can happen if you use an unreliable editing service, for example:

Source 1, 2, 3

Compare the images above to this professionally shot and edited image:

Source

It’s important for your images to be honest. In other words, don’t change the vibrance or saturation, because once your product gets to the customers, they’ll know you misrepresented the photos and description. Setting realistic expectations is very important, even critical, when selling online so your customers know what to expect.

Similarly, if you need to represent scale in your photos, make sure everything is realistic when photoshopping your images. It’s best, whenever possible, to put a ruler next to the item or simply put in the actual dimensions. Don’t enlarge any elements for products with multiple pieces.

What to avoid in Amazon images

Amazon requires all sellers avoid the following elements in the product images:

• Text, logos, borders, color blocks, watermarks, or other graphics covering the product or in the background for main product images
• Accessories that aren’t included with purchase
• Confusing props
• Mannequins

Here are additional resources from Amazon:

• Product Image Requirements
• Seller Central: Prepare product images
• Stores creative guidelines

Assigning image priority on the product page

It’s up to you to prioritize the images in the order in which you want them displayed. It’s a good idea to use all of the available image slots, rather than just two or three pictures. Doing so helps overcome one disadvantage that every online retailer faces: not being able to put the product in the hands of the customer.

Once you’ve uploaded your photos, you’ll want to prioritize and assign how each image appears on the page. This process determines the order of your images, so they show up in the correct sequence within the Amazon product search results as well as on your product pages. Consider arranging the images so customers experience the product (through photos) in a logical way.

Check out the example below from Loisa, which sells Latin-flavored spices and seasonings on its own ecommerce store and through Amazon. In addition to the straightforward white background shots, it angles the bottle of seasoning so customers can see the part of the label that lists the ingredients. It also showcases the product outside of its packaging so shoppers can better imagine cooking with it in real life.

Image source

Tips and best practices for Amazon product photos

Use lots of images

Use supplemental images to your advantage (and to help the customer make an informed decision). Give customers a detailed view of the item(s) from all perspectives. Not showing aspects of the product in detail can cost you a potential customer.

For example, this matcha powder from Golde is photographed in a few different ways. The main image gives you an idea of how it’s packaged, which sets expectations for when the product arrives. 

Image source

The supplemental images show how customers can use the product in drinks. It also gives you a glimpse into what the matcha powder actually looks like, which you can’t see when it’s in the packaging.

Show different angles

Try to imagine which angles the buyers would examine in person and then replicate that. You might also want to shoot your product from different angles.

If you’re not sure which angles your customers want to see regarding your particular product, go to a physical retail store and observe how shoppers interact with merchandise (if you can) or look around at objects in your home and pick them up as if they were displayed in a store. What would you look at or look for? The interior of handbags and wallets, for instance, are often photographed as there are important features customers would be interested in.

Incorporate models and people

Use a mix of images with people too. This can give products scale and help potential buyers imagine themselves in the model’s place.

Mind the lighting

You’ll also want to pay attention to the lighting of your photoshoot and how that affects the colors of your photos, especially because they need to look the same way in the photos as they do to the naked eye. Use an extra light source, and edit the photo afterward to really make it pop. A little bit of post-processing can go a long way.

Hire a pro

If your budget allows, consider hiring a product photographer. An experienced professional who specializes in your industry and type of products should know which angles to capture. Ask your network for recommendations and peruse directories like Shopify Experts, Guru, or Thumbtack.

A picture is worth 1,000 words—and sales

Never underestimate the value of optimized product images. Even though the search algorithm places some weight behind brand name, product title and description, optimizing your photos can certainly help boost your views.

Because a picture is truly worth a thousand words, ensure that your product photos help your customers see themselves with your product while also helping them make informed decisions.

Amazon image size FAQs

What size should images be for Amazon?

Your Amazon image size should be at least 1000 pixels tall or wide by at least 1600 pixels tall or wide. You can’t exceed 10,000 pixels. If your images are too big, you can resize them without sacrificing the quality.

How many listing images can you upload to Amazon?

You can upload one main product image and up to eight supporting product images on Amazon listings.

What are Amazon photo requirements for images other than the main first image?

Amazon has the same requirements for main images as it does for supplemental images. However, you should use these spots to showcase your product from different angles, contextually, and in different ways than it appears in the main image. Be sure to follow the Amazon product image size guidelines for all your photos.

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