Product photography

Product photography is your salesperson online

In a physical shop, people pick a product up, turn it around and feel the weight. Online, product photography has to do all of that. The images answer the questions a customer would otherwise ask: how big is it, what does the texture look like, what is in the box, how does it look on a person or in a room. When photos fail to answer, people either leave or send messages, and both cost you.

For small stores and makers, the good news is that strong product photos do not require an expensive studio. They require a plan, consistent light and careful editing. That is where I come in.

The shot list comes first

Before anyone picks up a camera, I write a shot list for each product or product type. A typical list:

1. Main image. Product alone, centred, on a clean background, the same framing as the rest of the catalogue.
2. Angles. Front, back, side, and top if the shape matters.
3. Details. Stitching, texture, materials, a label or ingredients list.
4. Scale. In a hand, next to a common object, or worn by a person.
5. In use. On a table, in a kitchen, at a campsite, wherever your customer imagines it.
6. Packaging. Especially for gifts, where unboxing matters.

For ads, I add a few frames composed with space for text, which saves cropping problems later.

A simple setup that works

For most products, a large window with indirect daylight, a sheet of white or neutral card bent into a curve behind the product, and a phone on a small tripod is enough. A white board on the shadow side fills in dark areas. I send you a setup plan with a photo, then check your test shots before you shoot the whole catalogue. Getting the setup right on five products saves reshooting fifty.

Shiny items, glass, jewellery and very dark products are the exceptions. They need more control over reflections, and that is where a local photographer with proper lighting often pays for themselves. I can prepare the brief so the result matches the rest of your catalogue.

Retouching that stays honest

Editing turns good raw shots into a consistent set. I remove dust and small marks, straighten lines, even out the background, match exposure across all images, and correct colour so a navy sweater is navy on screen. I do not reshape products or invent details. Accurate photos reduce returns, which matter even more when shipping across Canadian distances is expensive.

Final images are exported in the sizes each place needs: your store, Google Shopping feeds, marketplaces such as Amazon.ca, and square or vertical crops for social ads.

Photos and advertising

Product images are the raw material for most e-commerce advertising. Catalogue ads on Meta pull images straight from your product feed, and Shopping ads on Google show the main image beside competitors' products on the results page. Clean, consistent images there often lift click-through without any change to bids. I run Facebook ads for online stores and Google Shopping myself, so the photos can be planned around how they will appear in those placements. For finished ad designs built from your photos, see ad graphics.

Seasonal and lifestyle sets

Beyond the catalogue, it helps to plan a few small seasonal sets a year: the product in a winter cabin setting for the holiday rush, outdoors for summer, wrapped for Mother's Day or Black Friday. These refresh your ads and social posts without reshooting everything, and they show customers how the product fits their life at that moment.

What I need from you

A product list with priorities, a few current photos, the platforms you sell on, and someone to do the shooting or a budget for a local photographer. Three rounds of revisions are included in the retouching, and every final file is yours.