How to take product photos with a phone: light, background, angles and sizes

You don't need a camera, a studio or a photographer. A phone from the last few years, a window and a white sheet will give you photos that sell. What matters is light, background, framing and consistency.

1. Light: use a window, not the bulb

• Shoot in daylight next to a big window, with the product about a metre from the glass. Turn the room lights off, because mixing a yellow bulb with daylight makes colours look wrong.
• Avoid direct sun. Hard sun gives harsh shadows and burnt-out whites. Morning or late afternoon light, or a window that doesn't get direct sun, is softer.
• Fill the shadow side. Put a sheet of white manila, a white board or foil-covered cardboard opposite the window to bounce light back. This one trick does most of the work of a studio.
• Never use the phone's flash. It flattens the product and puts a glare spot on anything shiny.

2. Background: plain and the same every time

• A white or light-grey sweep: tape one end of a manila sheet or bedsheet to the wall and let it curve down onto the table. With no corner behind the product, there is no line in the photo.
• For clothes, hang the item on a plain wall with a good hanger, or have someone wear it against the plain wall. Never photograph clothes on a bed or in a heap.
• Use the same background for every product. A shop where every photo has the same light and background looks like a real shop, not a pile of WhatsApp forwards.

3. Hold the phone steady and set it up once

• Clean the lens with a soft cloth. A greasy lens is the most common reason phone photos look hazy.
• Steady the phone: a cheap tripod, a stack of books, or elbows on the table.
• Tap to focus on the product, then slide the brightness down a little if the white background looks blown out.
• Use the main (1x) lens and step back rather than zooming in digitally. Avoid the ultra-wide lens close up, because it bends straight edges.
• Turn off beauty and portrait filters. They change colours and blur edges, and buyers notice when the product arrives looking different.

4. The shots every product needs

Aim for four to six photos per product:

1. Front, filling the frame: the main photo, the one people see in your shop grid.
2. Back or side.
3. Close-up of the detail: fabric weave, stitching, the texture of a cream, the sole of a shoe.
4. Label, size tag or ingredients: for clothes, the size label; for beauty products, the ingredient list, batch number and expiry date.
5. In use or for scale: worn, held in a hand, or next to an everyday object, so buyers can judge size.
6. Any flaw, shown honestly: on second-hand items, one clear photo of a mark or wear. It prevents returns and builds trust.

For colour-sensitive products (make-up shades, fabric colours), check the photo against the real item before you post. If it's off, move closer to the window and shoot again. Don't fix colour with filters.

5. Frame for a square

Most shop grids, Duka included, show products as squares. When you shoot:

• leave a little space around the product so you can crop it to a square without cutting anything off;
• keep the product centred and the same size in the frame from one product to the next;
• shoot clothes on a person in portrait (tall) and crop to square for the main photo, keeping the full-length shot as photo two.

6. Size the files for the web

Phone photos are often 3–8 MB each and 4,000 pixels or more wide. That is far more than a shop page needs, and it makes your shop slow on mobile data. Before uploading:

• Resize to about 1,200–1,600 pixels on the long side. That stays sharp on phones and laptops, and leaves room for zoom.
• Save as JPG at about 80% quality, or WebP if your app offers it. A product photo at that size is usually a few hundred kilobytes.
• Crop first, then resize, so you don't throw away pixels you need.
• Name files sensibly ("black-ankle-boots-size-40.jpg", not "IMG_20261001.jpg"). It helps you find them later.

Free tools: the crop and resize options in your phone's gallery app, or any photo editor that has "resize" or "export size" settings. On Duka, upload JPG, PNG, WebP or GIF files of up to 5 MB each. Resizing first keeps you well under that limit, and the shop loads faster for buyers on mobile data.

7. A ten-minute routine for each batch

1. Set up the window, sheet and white board once.
2. Shoot every product in the same spot, all six shots each.
3. Pick the best four to six photos per product, crop to square, and resize the whole batch.
4. Upload, and look at the shop on your own phone. If any photo looks darker or a different colour from the rest, reshoot it.

Good photos also cut down on the questions you answer in DMs. Pair them with clear prices and sizes. See how to start an online store and how to sell clothes online.

Where Duka helps

A Duka shop shows your photos in a clean square grid with a full product page for each item, and gives you one link to share on WhatsApp, TikTok and Instagram. Buyers pay by M-Pesa or card at checkout. Setting up a shop is free.