Online, your photos do the job your shop counter does in person. Customers cannot touch the fabric or pick up the jar, so they look closely at pictures. Clear, honest photos help them decide. Dark, blurry or cluttered ones make them hesitate.
You do not need an expensive camera or a studio. A reasonably recent phone, a window and a few household items are enough to take photos that look professional and consistent. Here is how.
Light: the most important thing
Good light matters far more than a good camera. The best free light source is a window.
- Use daylight from a window, ideally when the sun is not shining directly in. Soft, indirect light shows true colours and gentle shadows.
- Turn off room lights. Mixing yellow bulbs or tube lights with daylight gives odd colour casts.
- Avoid direct midday sun, which creates harsh shadows and bright spots. If the sun is coming in, hang a thin white cotton cloth or a sheet of tracing paper over the window to soften it.
- Place the product beside the window, not with the window behind it, otherwise the product becomes a dark shape.
- Use a reflector to brighten shadows on the side away from the window. A piece of white chart paper or thermocol sheet propped up does the job well.
Shoot at the same time of day for each batch of photos so the light stays consistent across your catalogue.
Backgrounds: keep them simple
The product should be the star. A plain background stops the eye wandering.
- White or light grey chart paper is cheap and works for almost anything. Curve a long sheet from the wall down onto the table so there is no visible corner line behind the product.
- Natural textures such as a wooden board, a stone slab, a cotton cloth or a banana leaf can suit food, handicrafts and home goods. Use one texture consistently so your store looks organised.
- Remove clutter. Wires, bags, the edge of a sofa: anything that is not part of the product should be out of the frame.
Pick a style and stick to it. A store where every product sits on the same background looks far more trustworthy than one where each photo was taken somewhere different.
Steady and sharp
- Wipe the lens. Phone lenses collect fingerprints, and a smudge makes everything look hazy. This one step fixes a surprising number of soft photos.
- Hold the phone steady with both hands and elbows tucked in, or rest it on a stack of books. A small phone tripod is inexpensive and helps a lot.
- Tap to focus on the product on your screen before shooting.
- Use the main camera, not digital zoom. Move closer instead of zooming, which reduces quality. Some phones have a separate telephoto lens; that is fine to use.
- Avoid the flash. It flattens the product and creates glare.
Why 4:5?
A 4:5 photo is slightly taller than it is wide. It suits phone screens well, because it fills more of the screen than a square while still showing the whole product. Instagram supports 4:5 portrait posts, so the same photo works on your store and your feed.
When you shoot, leave a little space around the product on all sides so it can be cropped to 4:5 without cutting anything off. Keep the product roughly centred, and keep the same distance from the camera for similar products so they appear the same size in your store.
UpMinutes crops uploaded product photos to 4:5 and converts them to WebP, a lighter image format, so your collection pages line up neatly and load quickly on mobile data. You still choose the photo; the store takes care of the size and shape.
Which shots to take
For each product, aim for a small set that answers a customer's questions:
- Main photo: the whole product, straight on, on your standard background.
- Detail: close-up of the fabric weave, the zari, the stitching, the texture of the food, the finish of the wood.
- Scale: the product in a hand, on a person or next to a familiar object, so people understand size.
- In use: a saree draped, a lamp lit, a pickle served with rice. This helps people imagine owning it.
- Variants: each colour or option photographed the same way.
- Packaging: what arrives at the door, especially for gifts.
Tips for common Indian products
Sarees and fabric
Show the full drape, the pallu, the border and the blouse piece separately. Photograph fabric near a window to show the true colour and sheen, and add a note if the colour may look different on screens.
Jewellery
Small items need close-ups. Use a plain dark or light background, and soft light to avoid harsh reflections. Show the piece being worn for scale.
Food and sweets
Shoot from slightly above or at the angle you would see it at the table. Natural light makes food look fresh. Show the pack and a serving. Keep it honest: the photo should look like what the customer will receive.
Handicrafts and home decor
Show texture and craftsmanship in close-up, and a room setting for scale.
Light editing, not filters
The built-in editor on your phone is enough. Small adjustments to brightness, contrast and straightening help. Avoid heavy filters or beauty modes: they change colours, and customers who receive something different from the photo will be disappointed, which often leads to returns.
Write alt text
Add a short description to each image, such as "Peacock blue silk saree with gold border, draped". This helps people using screen readers and helps search engines understand the photo. See our guide to SEO in the first 90 days.
A simple home setup
- A table next to a north- or east-facing window, or any window without direct sun.
- A large sheet of white chart paper as a sweep.
- A second sheet of white card as a reflector.
- A small tripod or a stack of books.
- A clean, soft cloth for the lens and products.
Set it up in the same spot each time, and you will build a consistent catalogue quickly.
In short
Soft daylight, a plain background, a clean lens and a steady hand will take you most of the way. Shoot a few angles of every product, leave room for a 4:5 crop, and keep editing light and honest.
Once you have your photos, pair them with good words; our guide to product descriptions that sell will help. Then start a free UpMinutes trial and see how your photos look in one of the 150 themes.