How to photograph clothes without a mannequin

Pick a method

There are four common ways to photograph clothes for a listing. Poshmark’s photo guide names them: flat lay, mannequin, hanging and on a person. Without a mannequin, three are left.

The “ghost mannequin” look, a garment that seems to float, isn’t a way around the mannequin. Photoroom describes it as shooting the piece on a form or a person and removing them in editing.

For most small sellers, the flat lay is the main photo, and an on-body shot is a welcome extra when you can manage one.

Get the piece ready

• Steam or iron it. Creases look bigger in a high-resolution photo than in your hands, as Photoroom notes.
• Clean it up. Shopify suggests checking for lint, pilling and loose stitches, and going over the piece with a lint roller. Pixelz adds trimming loose threads.
• Empty the pockets and do up every button and zip that’s meant to be done up.

The flat lay, step by step

1. A plain surface. Shopify says most clothing photographers use white or light grey, and that a slightly off-white or grey background gives a light garment more contrast than pure white. A sheet, a roll of paper or white poster board on the floor all work.
2. Lay it out square. Smooth the piece flat, line up the shoulders and the hem, and fold the sleeves the same way on every item, so a whole catalogue matches. Pixelz recommends pinning and tucking a garment so it sits properly.
3. Shoot from straight above. The phone should be parallel to the floor, directly over the middle of the piece. The flat-lay guide shows how to use the camera’s level and why 2x keeps the edges straight.
4. Keep the phone in one place. Photoroom’s advice for a catalogue is to fix the camera position and not move it between items, so every piece is framed the same.
5. Leave a margin. The whole garment inside the frame, with space around it. The main image on TikTok Shop must not be cropped.

Hanging, done well

When a piece hangs better than it lies, Profoto’s studio how-to is a good model:

• A plain wall or door behind it, and the garment centred, with the shoulders level on the hanger.
• Let it hang flat. Pull the fabric down gently, tuck it at the armpits, and hold the cuffs in place with a little double-sided tape. Don’t pull so hard that the shape distorts.
• Light from the side brings out the texture of knits and denim.
• Hide the hanger if you can: Profoto hangs the piece from fishing line so the hanger is out of shot.
• Shoot from the middle. Hold the phone at the height of the garment’s centre, about chest height for a top. Shooting down from above makes it look shorter. That’s a rule of thumb from photographers rather than a published standard, and it works.

The photos a clothing listing needs

The marketplaces and resale apps agree on the set:

1. The front, whole, on a plain background: the main image. TikTok Shop’s listing image rules ask for a solid background, white recommended, the product taking up at least 60% of the frame, and nothing cropped.
2. The back, and the sides where they differ.
3. Close-ups of the fabric, the stitching, the buttons and zips. eBay asks for close-ups of textures, tags and labels.
4. The size tag, so buyers can check the sizing, as Poshmark advises.
5. Every flaw. For a second-hand piece, show each stain, pull, hole or sign of wear in its own close-up. eBay and Poshmark both ask for it. A flaw a buyer finds after delivery becomes a return; a flaw shown in the listing becomes a fair price.
6. A measurement photo. Many thrift sellers lay the piece flat with a tape measure across the chest from armpit to armpit and down the length from the shoulder seam to the hem. That’s seller practice, not a platform rule. Keep the tape straight, don’t stretch the fabric, and frame it close enough that the numbers can be read.

Pixelz suggests at least three images and ideally five to ten. TikTok Shop allows up to nine, each square and at least 600 × 600 px. For the size and file rules of every marketplace, see the marketplace photo guide, and check a photo with the free photo checker.

Colour that matches

Colour is where clothing photos most often let buyers down.

• Daylight, no flash, no filter. eBay asks sellers to avoid flash and filters. Poshmark warns that warm household bulbs give a yellow light that changes colours, especially denim.
• Watch white balance. Shopify finds the phone’s automatic white balance works well in most cases; Pixelz’s advice is not to ignore it. Compare the photo with the piece in your hand before you upload.
• Some colours are hard. Pixelz names neons, reds and pinks as the hardest to capture accurately. Shoot those by a window in soft light.

It’s worth the care. In a 2023 survey of US shoppers by PowerReviews, 28% of those who had returned clothing said it didn’t look the way they expected; 39% returned it for fit. That’s US data, and the survey comes from a company that sells review software, but the lesson travels: what the photo shows is what the buyer expects.

Before you list

• Steamed, lint-rolled and threads trimmed
• The front on a plain background, whole, with a margin
• The back, the details and the size tag
• Every flaw in its own close-up
• Measurements across the chest and down the length, with the tape straight
• Shot in daylight, with no flash and no filter