An online shop looks trustworthy when every product sits on the same clean background, in the same light, at the same size. A shop where every photo was taken in a different corner looks like a market stall, even when the products are good.
This guide is about planning: how to sort the items, fix one setup and shoot 30 products in one session without losing the match between the first and the last.
Why a plain background
- The product is the only thing to look at. No shelf, no cable, no reflection of the shop window.
- The catalogue looks like one set. Thirty products on the same white or light grey read as one brand.
- The photos work everywhere. Webshop, Google Shopping, marketplaces, Instagram, a printed flyer. Many marketplaces ask for a white background anyway.
A shop corner rarely gives you that. Daylight changes every hour, walls are the wrong colour and there is never enough distance between the product and the background. A clean white sweep with controlled light is easier to get in a studio.
Before the day: sort the items
Lay everything out and sort it into groups by size and surface, not by category.
| Group | Example | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Small, matte | soaps, boxes, textiles | One soft light, easy |
| Small, shiny | jars, jewellery, bottles | Long soft light from the side, care with reflections |
| Transparent | glasses, perfume, drinks | Light from behind the product |
| Large | bags, lamps, small furniture | More distance, a wider background |
Shoot one group at a time. Changing the light for every product is what turns a two-hour session into a full day.
Fix one setup and write it down
For each group, decide once:
- camera height and distance;
- the lens and the zoom, if you use one;
- where the lights stand;
- the angle: front, three-quarter, top-down.
Write it on a piece of tape on the floor and take a phone photo of the setup. When you come back for new products in three months, you rebuild it and the new photos match the old ones.
The shot list per product
For most shops, three to five frames per product are enough:
- Front, the main catalogue photo.
- Three-quarter view.
- A detail: the texture, the label, the closure.
- The back or the inside, if buyers ask about it.
- Scale: in a hand, or next to a known object.
Thirty products with four frames each is 120 photos. Planned and grouped, that fits in one session.
Name the files on the day
Agree on file names before you start: the product code from the webshop and the frame number, like SKU1042-1. Shoot a card with the code in front of each product's first frame. It takes seconds and saves an hour of guessing later.
After the shoot
- Same crop and the same margin around every product.
- The same background tone in every file: white is white, not cream in one and blue in the next.
- Export in the sizes your shop and marketplaces ask for.
Then use the best frames beyond the shop: a carousel on Instagram, a product in a Google Business Profile post, a picture in an ad. See our website photo shot list for the rest of the site.
Where to shoot
If your shop has no clean corner, no white wall and no space to step back, rent a room that does. Rent the Lux Photo Pro studio for a product shoot: a white paper sweep, studio lights and stripboxes are already there, in Luxembourg city.
If you would rather not shoot yourself, we plan and shoot product sets as part of content and shoots with COEVO. Shoots start from €250 an hour excl. VAT; the full ladder is on the prices page.