Writing
Specific problems in preparing product photographs, and what we found when we dug into them. Mostly things that go wrong quietly.
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When file size limits and dimension requirements fight each other
Some marketplaces ask for a large image and a small file at the same time. How to hit both without shipping something soft or artefacted.
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Colour spaces explained for people who sell things
sRGB, Adobe RGB, Display P3 and ProPhoto, what they actually mean, and why a product returned for being "the wrong colour" is often a colour space problem.
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The commonest reasons listing images get rejected
Rejections cluster around a small number of causes. What they are, why each happens, and which are policy rather than quality.
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Building a shot list you can repeat every week
The difference between a photography session that takes two hours and one that takes six is almost never the camera. It is knowing what you are shooting before you start.
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What happens to your image after you press upload
Marketplaces do not serve the file you uploaded. Understanding what they do to it changes which parts of your export actually matter.
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What actually happens when you resize an image
Resizing is not shrinking. It is reconstructing an image at a different sampling rate, and the method decides whether product edges stay crisp or turn to mush.
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What is hidden in your product photos, and what to strip
Every photo carries metadata. Some of it is useful, some is a privacy problem, and one field is load-bearing in a way that surprises people.
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Why transparent PNGs cause trouble on marketplaces
Transparency looks like the flexible option and behaves like a trap. What the alpha channel actually is, where it goes wrong, and when to use it anyway.
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WebP and AVIF for e-commerce: when they actually help
Both compress better than JPEG. Whether that matters depends entirely on who re-encodes your image after you upload it, which is usually the marketplace.
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What the JPEG quality number actually means
Quality 80 is not 80% of anything. What the setting does, where the useful range is, and why saving twice is worse than saving once badly.
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Photographing clothing: flat lay, mannequin or model
Three ways to photograph apparel for listings, what each costs in time and money, and which categories genuinely need which.
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Shooting product photos on a phone: what actually matters
A modern phone is good enough for marketplace listings. Five things that decide whether the results are usable, and three phone features to turn off.
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A pre-upload checklist for listing images
Eleven checks, in the order that catches the most problems soonest, for anyone about to upload a batch of product photos to a marketplace.
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When to reshoot instead of retouch
Some photo problems are cheap to fix and some are not recoverable at any price. How to tell the difference in ten seconds, before you waste an afternoon.
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Photographing reflective products without seeing yourself in them
Jewellery, glass, chrome and polished packaging reflect everything including you. Five techniques that work, and why automatic background removal struggles here.
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Shooting on a white sweep with two lights
A repeatable two-light setup for product photos on white, what each light is doing, and the three mistakes that cost most sellers a reshoot.
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How many pixels does a product photo actually need?
Marketplace requirements are floors, not targets. A practical guide to what each platform asks for and what it is worth shooting.
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Why your product photos look flatter online than on your camera
A photo that looks rich on your screen can arrive dull on a listing. Usually the cause is a colour profile that was thrown away rather than converted.
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Why iPhone photos arrive sideways, and whose fault it is
A portrait photo that looks upright on your phone can upload rotated. The reason is a tag, and the fix depends on which of two places the rotation is stored.
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Amazon's white background rule is a number, not a colour
The main-image rule is literally RGB(255,255,255). Here is why photos that look white get rejected, and how to check yours before you upload.
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