How to take product photos for a website with a phone and window light
Put the product on a table beside a large window, curve a sheet of white card behind and under it, bounce light back with a second card, and shoot with your phone at its main lens, not zoomed. Keep the setup exactly the same for every product. Consistency across a catalogue matters more than any single beautiful shot.
What you need
- A phone with a clean lens. Wipe it before every session; a smudge softens everything.
- A window with indirect daylight. North-facing in the northern hemisphere is ideal; any window out of direct sun works.
- A sweep: a large sheet of white or light grey card, curved from the wall down onto the table so there's no visible corner.
- A bounce card: white card or foam board to reflect light into the shadow side.
- Something to hold the phone steady: a small tripod, or a stack of books.
- Tape, putty and a cloth for holding products in place and dusting them.
Set up once, shoot many
- Place the table side-on to the window, so light falls across the product from one side.
- Tape the sweep to the wall or a box behind the table, letting it curve down onto the table.
- Put the bounce card on the side away from the window, angled to lift the shadows. Move it closer for softer shadows.
- Switch off room lights. Mixing warm bulbs with daylight gives two colours of light that no editing fully fixes.
- Fix the phone position: same height, same distance, same angle for every product. Mark the tripod's spot on the table with tape.
- Lock focus and exposure by pressing and holding on the product on screen, then drag exposure down slightly if white areas look blown out.
- Photograph a reference card (a plain white sheet) at the start; you can use it later to correct colour across the whole set.
The shots each product needs
| Shot | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Front, on the plain backdrop | The main catalogue image; consistent across all products |
| Three-quarter angle | Shows depth and shape |
| Back or underside | Labels, fastenings, the side people wonder about |
| Close-up detail | Texture, stitching, finish: the proof of quality |
| Scale | In a hand, on a shelf, next to a familiar object |
| In use or in place | A lifestyle shot that shows who it's for |
Four to six photos per product covers most questions. The front shot carries the catalogue; the rest answer the objections a shopper can't resolve by picking the product up.
Edit lightly and export for the web
- Correct white balance using the reference card, and apply the same correction to the whole session.
- Crop to the same ratio for every catalogue image, such as square or 4:5, with the product filling a similar share of the frame.
- Clean up dust and stray threads; don't change the product's colour or shape, which leads to returns.
- Resize: around 1,600 to 2,000 pixels on the long side is enough for a zoomed product view.
- Export as WebP or a well-compressed JPEG, and name files by what they show:
olive-waxed-tote-front.jpg. Google's image SEO guidance recommends short, descriptive filenames and alt text, and placing images near related text.
Using the photos with Anticode
Add the finished photos to an Anticode build in the composer, or with a later change request. Each is checked by its first bytes and stored under your account, and the model sees the photos, so it can place them; naming files clearly and saying in the request which photo belongs to which product helps it get placement right first time. Uploaded photos are used by builds the model writes; pages laid out by the design engine use a curated photo library instead, so check the plan the Architect shows if your own product photos are essential, or keep products in a CMS collection whose image field holds the address of a photo you host. More on this in using your own photos in an AI-built site.
Every meaningful image needs alt text before publishing; the design gate blocks pages without it. For products, describe what a shopper needs: colour, material and view, as in "Olive waxed cotton tote, front, with leather handles". See how to write alt text.
Mistakes that show
- Direct sun: hard shadows and blown highlights. Shoot out of the sun, or diffuse it with a white sheet over the window.
- Digital zoom: on many phones, zooming past the lens's native steps loses detail. Move closer instead.
- Different setups each session: the catalogue looks like several shops. Write the setup down and photograph it.
- Colours that don't match the real thing: the most common cause of "not as described" returns.
Questions people ask
Can I take good product photos with a phone?
Yes, for most small products. Light and a steady, repeatable setup make more difference than the camera.
What background is best?
Plain white or light grey for the main catalogue shot, because it keeps the focus on the product. Use real settings for the in-use shots.
How do I get rid of harsh shadows?
Move out of direct sun, bring a white bounce card closer on the shadow side, or hang a thin white sheet over the window to soften the light.