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Practical Business Tips | #02 | How to take pictures of items to sell

We seem to be in the age of the entrepreneur, which means there are so many other people out there you can learn from when starting and running your own business. 

Which is why I am starting this blog series on

Practical Business Tips

Today's blog is purely going to cover - How to take pictures of items to sell.

So - you have a product (in my case, socks) and you want to take basic photo of it on a surface and make it look professional. But.. you only have your phone, you don't have a light box or a fancy studio, you have your kitchen table.

Well - same here! And I've managed to build some basic product photography skills on a £0 budget (not including the phone).


1. Lighting

 This is free, and really important to get right. I choose fairly overcast days for my product photos because I want it to be light but not so sunny that it creates a warm tone to my photos. You also need to be near a window, with the source of light in front of the camera so you don't cast a shadow.

2. Sneaky lighting

If you are struggling to get the lighting right, a good cheat is to hold up plain white paper around the product to reflect light back - who needs a light box hey?

3. Editing

 There are so many apps and software programmes available to edit product photos. Snapseed is a great free app to adjust your photo. Photoshop is obviously the king - but costs money and you do need to teach yourself how to use it (youtube!).

For simply having a white background, all I do is take a photo of the product on white paper as above. I then use the Amazon seller app (you do need an account but it is free if you sign up as an individual seller and don't list), and use their photo studio. In one click your product has a white background that is up to the standard for posting on Amazon. 

4. Other backgrounds

Consistency is key, I take all my photos against my wooden floor because it works with my branding. I used to use a lump of concrete my the local lake to give an industrial edge to my photos - anything goes!

You want to showcase the product, so I would advise on picking a fairly neutral background so it doesn't draw the eye.

And that is my short but sweet advice on:

How to take pictures of items to sell.

There are many ways to do this, and I have found a way that works for me. If you have tips you can share please leave them in the comments!

You can shop the range of socks you see photographed on my collections page. 


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