Photograph your products with a phone and a window

Photography is the difference between a listing people scroll past and one they open. You do not need a camera, a lightbox or a studio. You need a window, something white, and the phone in your hand.

Use a window, never the flash

Put your product on a table beside a window, with the window to one side rather than behind you. Turn the flash off and turn the room lights off too. Mixing daylight with a bulb gives you colours that are neither, and buyers notice when the item that arrives is not the shade in the photo.

Mid-morning or mid-afternoon is kinder than noon. Direct midday sun makes hard shadows and blown-out highlights.

Make the background disappear

A large sheet of white paper, curved up against a wall or a box so there is no visible corner, is all a plain background takes. No line where the table meets the wall means nothing competes with the product.

Plain grey or a clean wooden surface both work. A patterned bedsheet does not.

Bounce light back

The side away from the window will be dark. Stand a second sheet of white paper or card on that side, angled towards the product, and it throws light back into the shadow. This one free trick does more for a photo than any filter.

Steady the phone

Prop it on a stack of books rather than holding it. Tap the screen on the product so the phone focuses and exposes for it. If your phone has a grid option, turn it on and keep the product off dead centre.

Shoot the set every buyer wants

For each product, take:

• The whole item, straight on, filling most of the frame
• A three quarter angle, so it reads as an object rather than a cut-out
• A close-up of the material, weave, stitching or finish
• Any label, size marking or serial number
• Any flaw, if the item is used
• The item in use or being held, for scale

That last one matters more than sellers expect. Buyers routinely misjudge size from a photo on a plain background, and a size complaint becomes a return.

Be honest about condition

Photographing a scratch feels like it costs you the sale. It does not. It costs you the return, the dispute and the review. An item that arrives exactly as pictured is the whole basis of a repeat customer.

Before you upload

Crop tight, straighten anything crooked, and lift the brightness slightly if it looks dull. Stop there. Heavy filters and saturation sliders create the gap between the photo and the parcel that returns are made of.

Use the same background and framing for every product in your shop. A grid of listings that match looks like a business. A grid that does not looks like a stranger selling from a phone.