How to shoot marketplace product photos with an iPhone

What the marketplaces ask for

Every marketplace publishes its own photo rules, and they change. This is what each one’s seller pages said in November 2026. Check the linked page before a big shoot.

A few honest notes on that table:

• Shopee’s background and fill rules are for Shopee Mall. Shopee does not publish a background rule or a minimum pixel size for ordinary sellers. The Mall rules are the best guide to what Shopee considers a good listing, so they are worth following anyway.
• Lazada’s own pages disagree. One developer page gives a 3 MB limit, an older one says 1 MB. Lazada’s white-background and product-fill advice appears only in second-hand sources. A photo that meets the TikTok Shop rules will meet anything Lazada is likely to ask.
• No text on the main image. Shopee Mall rules out watermarks, borders, montages and added text on the cover, and allows only a small logo in the top-left corner. TikTok Shop’s guidelines ask for the same clean main image. Save the “Free shipping” banner for a later photo, if anywhere.

One standard that meets all three

Shoot to the strictest version of each rule and one set of photos works on every marketplace:

1. Square, exported at about 2048 × 2048 px, the size Shopify recommends for square product photos. It is well inside every limit and sharp when buyers zoom in.
2. The main image is the product alone, front on, on plain white, filling at least 60% of the frame and not cut off at any edge.
3. No text, borders, stickers or watermarks on the main image.
4. The other photos show what the first can’t: the sides and back, close-ups, the product in use, and its size.

Set up a white background

The standard background is a white sweep: one sheet of paper that runs up a wall behind the product and curves down under it, so there is no line where the table meets the wall.

• Use a sheet of white poster board or a roll of paper. Tape the top to a wall or a box, let it curve down, and tape the front edge to the table.
• Pure white, not cream. Shopify warns that off-white or cream paper makes editing and lighting harder: it never turns white, and it tints the product.
• Keep it clean and flat. Creases and dents show as grey lines. Small paper is cheap, so replace it when it marks.

Light it with a window

You don’t need studio lights. A large window does the job well if it is used properly.

1. Put the window to the side, about 90 degrees from the direction the phone faces. Shopify recommends a large window and the set close to it: the closer the product is to the window, the softer the light.
2. Avoid direct sun. A sunbeam on the product makes hard edges and blown highlights. Hang a white sheet, a shower curtain or baking paper over the window, or shoot when the sun is on the other side of the building. Squarespace points out that early morning and late afternoon light is softer.
3. Fill the shadow side with a white foam board or poster board standing across from the window. Move it in and out until the shadow side shows detail but still has some shadow.
4. Turn off the room lights, and don’t use the phone’s flash. Mixed light gives two colours, and the flash flattens the product and throws a hard reflection.

Use the right lens and angle

Product photographers mostly work with a 50 to 105 mm lens and avoid wide angles, which stretch whatever is nearest the camera. On an iPhone 17, the 2x setting is equivalent to 52 mm, right in that range.

• Switch to 2x (or 3x) and step back until the product fits. A box keeps its straight edges and a bottle stands upright.
• Tap the zoom buttons; don’t pinch. Pinching past the lens buttons is digital zoom, which only crops and enlarges the picture and loses detail.
• Shoot at the product’s own height. Something upright, such as a bottle, a bag or a box, looks right from eye level or just above. Flat things, such as a wallet, a scarf or a phone case, look best from straight above.
• Use the grid and the level (Settings › Camera › Grid and Level) to keep the product straight and the horizon line of the sweep level. Where to put it in the frame is its own subject: the rule of thirds and the rule of odds.
• Lock focus and exposure. Touch and hold the product on the screen until AE/AF Lock appears (Apple’s camera guide). Then drag the sun icon up a little: white backgrounds tend to come out grey, and a touch more exposure makes them white.

Shoot the full set

The marketplaces’ guidelines and Shopify’s list of product shots agree on what a full listing shows:

1. The main image: front on, on white, product alone.
2. Side and back: TikTok Shop asks for each image from a different angle.
3. Close-ups of the details buyers ask about: fabric, stitching, labels, ports, the texture of a cream.
4. The packaging, and the product beside it, so buyers see exactly what arrives.
5. Scale: in a hand, on a person, or next to something everyone knows the size of.
6. In use: the bag worn, the mug full, the plant in a room. This is where a styled background belongs.
7. Variants: every colour or size you sell, either one per photo or together in one lineup shot. For a whole range, keeping a catalogue consistent covers fixing the setup so every listing matches. Keep that group shot off the main image: TikTok Shop’s US listing-quality rules count several variants staged together in the main image against a listing.

Before you shoot

• Clean the product. Wipe off fingerprints and dust, peel stray stickers, and steam out creases. A product photographer told Adobe that glass cleaner, scissors and an adhesive remover on set save hours of retouching later.
• Clean the lens. A phone lens carried in a pocket is almost always smudged, and a smudge makes everything look hazy.
• Check the edges of the frame for tape, paper edges and the table showing past the sweep.