How to Take Product Photos for Amazon, Etsy & Online Stores

1. Lighting Matters More Than Your Camera

A phone camera in good, even light will beat an expensive camera in bad light every time. The easiest setup: place your product near a large window during the day (avoid direct harsh sunlight — a bright, overcast day or diffused window light is ideal), with the light source in front of or to the side of the product, not behind it.

2. Use a Plain, Consistent Background

Most marketplaces (Amazon especially) require a pure white background for the main listing photo. You have two options:

• Shoot on white: a white poster board, foam board, or even a clean white bedsheet works fine as a backdrop.
• Shoot anywhere, fix it after: take the photo against whatever's convenient, then use a tool like photoresizer.me's Change Background Color to swap it for a clean white background afterward — click on your product to select it, choose white, done.

3. Platform-Specific Size Requirements

Use photoresizer.me's custom size tool to crop to any of these exact dimensions — just type in the width and height you need.

4. Shoot Multiple Angles

One photo is never enough. At minimum, capture: a straight-on front shot, a 45° angle shot, a close-up of any texture or detail, and — if relevant — a photo showing scale (next to a common object, or being worn/used).

5. Keep File Sizes Reasonable

Large, uncompressed images slow down your store's loading speed, which hurts both user experience and search ranking. After editing, compress your photos before uploading using the Compress tab — it shows you a live file-size estimate as you adjust quality, so you can find the sweet spot between sharp and small.

6. Don't Over-Edit

A common mistake: making colors too saturated or contrast too high to "pop." This often looks unnatural and can lead to returns when the item doesn't match what buyers expected. A light touch — clean background, accurate colors, good lighting — outperforms heavy editing almost every time.