In an online store, customers can’t pick up the product, so your photos do the salesperson’s job. You have three options: use photos from your supplier, take them yourself or hire a photographer. Each has its place, and in practice they’re often combined. In this article, you’ll find a comparison, what to watch out for with photo rights and how to decide based on your product range.
Supplier photos
The fastest route, especially when you sell goods from a manufacturer or wholesaler and have lots of products. You often get the photos together with descriptions in an import file (a feed) and can fill your store without a photo shoot.
Pros
- No photography costs and time saved.
- A consistent style within the manufacturer’s brand.
- Photos are available right away, even for new products.
Cons and risks
- The same photos as your competitors. On price comparison sites and in Google Shopping ads, you look just like every other seller, so customers decide mainly on price.
- Inconsistent quality. Low resolution, different backgrounds, sometimes text or a watermark right in the photo.
- Usage rights. Every photo has an author. Just because you find it on the manufacturer’s website doesn’t mean you’re allowed to use it. Get permission in writing, ideally in your contract with the supplier.
- Ad platform rules. Google Merchant Center, for example, doesn’t allow watermarks or promotional text on product images. You’ll find the requirements in Google’s documentation on product images.
Your own phone photos
With a smaller product range and with your own or handmade products, this is often a sensible choice. A newer phone can take a quality photo if you give it good conditions. What matters is the light and the process, not an expensive camera.
What you need
- Light: a large window with diffused daylight and no direct sun. If you shoot in batches, two identical continuous lights are worth it so that each photo doesn’t look different.
- Background: white or light paper curved from the table up the wall so there’s no visible edge behind the product.
- Tripod: even a simple one. Your phone stays at the same height and angle, so your photos stay consistent.
- The same setup: the same distance, angle and crop for all products. Write it down so you can repeat it.
- Editing: cropping to a consistent aspect ratio, correcting white balance and brightness. When you remove backgrounds with AI, check the edges, especially with fur, glass and transparent materials.
Where a phone isn’t enough
Glossy and mirrored surfaces, glass, jewelry, white products on a white background and very small details. Without experience with lighting, you can easily waste a lot of time here, and the result still won’t be good.
Be careful with editing too: the photo has to match what the customer receives. A different shade or material in the photo means disappointment, a returned item and a bad review.
A professional photographer
Professional photos pay off where the photo directly sells and where you can’t afford mistakes:
- for more expensive products where customers examine every detail,
- for your best sellers and the products you advertise,
- for challenging materials, such as glossy surfaces, glass, metal or strong textures,
- for a large product range that should have a consistent style,
- for photos on your homepage, in campaigns and on social media where you show the product in use.
What to agree on with the photographer
- Scope: the number of products and shots per product – the whole item, details, the back, the packaging.
- Type of photos: the product on a white background (a so-called packshot), in a real setting while in use, or both.
- Editing: what the retouching includes and how many rounds of revisions are part of the deal.
- Formats: dimensions and aspect ratios for your store, price comparison sites and social media, so you don’t have to crop the photos afterward.
- License: where and for how long you can use the photos – website, ads, price comparison sites, print. Get it in writing.
- Timeline: when you’ll get the finished photos and when your products will be returned.
The price of professional photography depends on the number of products and shots, the type of photos, how challenging the materials are, the scope of retouching and whether you need a location or a model. That’s why quotes can vary a lot – always compare them based on the same brief.
Three questions that decide for you
Do you sell the same things as others?
If several online stores offer the same goods, with supplier photos you can only stand out on price and service. Your own photos are one of the few things that can set you apart even with the same product.
How much do your customers care about looks?
For spare parts or consumables, a precise, sharp photo that lets customers confirm it’s the right item is enough. For clothing, furniture, home decor or cosmetics, the photo sells – that’s where investing in photography makes the most sense.
How many products do you have, and how often do you add new ones?
You can’t photograph an entire large, fast-changing product range, and you don’t need to. Focus on the products that make up most of your sales and use supplier photos for the rest.
Side-by-side comparison
| Criterion | From the supplier | Your own phone photos | Professional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Costs | None or minimal | Your time and basic equipment | You pay the photographer |
| Your time | Almost none | The most | Preparing products and agreeing on details |
| Uniqueness | Same as your competitors | Your own | Your own |
| Consistent style | Depends on the manufacturer | Depends on your discipline | Yes, with a good brief |
| Challenging materials | Depends on the manufacturer | A problem | Handled well |
| Usage rights | Need to be checked | Yours | As agreed with the photographer |
| Best for | A wide range of standard goods | A small range, handmade goods, details and videos | Key and more expensive products, campaigns |
How to combine them in practice
- Split your product range into key products – best sellers, those with the highest margins and those you advertise – and everything else.
- For key products, consider professional photos or at least carefully shot photos of your own.
- For the rest, use supplier photos if you have the rights, and add at least one photo of your own: a detail, the product in someone’s hand to show its size, or the packaging. That way you stand out even where others have the same content.
- Keep the main photo consistent across the whole category, and show your own style in the additional photos and videos.
- After a few months, compare whether products with new photos sell better, and decide how to continue based on that.
We describe how photos fit into your store’s overall sales, from ads to email, on our e-commerce marketing page.
The technical minimum for every photo
- A consistent aspect ratio across the whole store, such as square.
- A resolution high enough to zoom in on details, but a file compressed so it doesn’t slow down your website. You’ll find out how in our article on optimizing images without losing quality.
- A clear file name and alternative text (alt text) that describes the product. It helps blind users and search engines.
- A separate photo for each variant, such as color or material.
- At least one photo that makes the product’s size clear.
- A main photo without text, frames or watermarks.
Customers aren’t the only ones who see your photos. Image search engines and tools that recognize products from photos work with them too. Learn more in our article on visual search.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use manufacturer photos in my online store?
Only with permission from whoever holds the rights – usually the manufacturer or supplier. Manufacturers and suppliers often allow sellers to use them, but get that permission confirmed in writing. Never use photos from a competitor’s website.
What background should product photos have?
For the main photo, a clean white or light background is the safest choice. The product stands out and the category looks consistent. Save colored backgrounds and real-life settings for additional photos. Check the specific requirements of price comparison sites and ad platforms in their documentation.
Are phone photos good enough for an online store?
For many products, yes, if you have good light, a tripod and a consistent process. Problems usually come with glossy, transparent and very small products, where it’s hard to get a good result without lighting experience.
How many photos should each product have?
There’s no fixed number. Your photos should answer the questions a customer would ask in a store: what the whole product looks like, what details it has, how big it is, what it looks like in use and what it comes in. More expensive and complex products will need more, simple everyday goods fewer.
If you want photos that set your store apart from competitors selling the same goods, check out our product photography. We’ll also help if you want to shoot the photos yourself and just need to set up a process.
