How to photograph a product with a phone so the rest can be done for you

Most shops do not need a photographer for the first shot. They need one usable source photo, and then software can put the product anywhere. Usable is a low bar, but a real one.

• A window, as long as direct sun does not come through it.
• A sheet of white paper or card, A3 if you have it; A4 will do for small things.
• A second white sheet, or anything white and flat, to bounce light.
• Your phone.

1. Put the product beside the window, not facing it

Stand the product so the window is to its left or right, at about 45 degrees. Light from the side makes the bright edge and the falling shadow that show an object's shape. Light from behind you flattens it.

2. Curve the paper up behind it

Lay the sheet under the product and curve the far end up against a book or a wall, so there is no hard line where the table meets the background. Photographers call this a sweep.

3. Bounce light into the shadow side

Hold the second sheet on the dark side of the product, about a hand's width away, angled to catch the window light. Lift the shadow enough to show detail, not so much that it disappears. If it disappears, the product is lit flat again.

4. Hold the phone level with the product

Crouch. Shoot from the height a customer would hold the thing, not from standing height looking down at a box.

5. Tap to focus, then lower the exposure a little

Tap the product on the screen, then drag the brightness slider down a little. A slightly dark photo keeps detail you can bring back. A blown-out white patch is gone for good.

6. Take five, from slightly different angles

Straight on, three-quarter left, three-quarter right, slightly above, and one close-up of the detail that matters: the stitching, the label, the texture.

Everything above is a matter of degree. These three are not. If a photo has one of them, take it again.

Direct flash

A phone flash sits next to the lens, so it lights the product from exactly where you stand. That removes every shadow that gives the object shape, and it puts a hard white spot on anything shiny. Turn it off and use the window.

A blown-out area

Zoom in on the brightest part of the product. If it is pure white with no texture, that detail is not in the file, and nothing can invent it. Take it again, darker.

Motion blur

Indoor light means a slow shutter. Brace the phone against something or prop it up. Sharpening makes a blurred photo look crunchy, not sharp.

You are not making the final image. You are making a source: the product in focus, lit from one side, with its real colour and texture visible.

From that one photo, ProduktShot's product photos put the product in a studio or a lifestyle scene at 1K, 2K and 4K, from 2.5 credits an image, and background removal gives you the product alone as a PNG. A good source becomes many good pictures. A flash-lit, blown-out one becomes many bad ones.

Before you post a phone photo yourself, the free EXIF remover shows the details the file carries, such as the camera, the time and the place it was taken, and saves a copy without them.