Product photos with a phone: a free window-light setup

Build the setup from things you own

Choose a table beside a window rather than directly in a patch of harsh sun. Curve a sheet of plain paper behind a small item if you have one; a clean wall and table also work. Remove bright packaging from nearby surfaces because it can appear as a reflection or color cast.

Shopify's photography guidance uses window light and white cards, and advises against mixing room lights with that daylight. Start there, then change one variable at a time so you can tell what helped.

Reference: Shopify Help Center: Product photography ↗

1. Clean the phone lens and the product. Check fingerprints on caps and glossy packaging.
2. Support the phone on a stable stand or stack of books, clear of the table edge. Keep the product upright.
3. Tap the important label or front surface to focus. Use the camera timer if pressing the button introduces blur.

Shoot three jobs, not twenty near-duplicates

A listing needs evidence as well as atmosphere. Keep your first frame plain enough to show what is actually sold. Give the other frames a different job. Do not make a larger-looking product by moving a scale reference independently between shots.

Fix the setup before editing

If a label is dark but the background is bright, bring a white card toward the shadow side instead of increasing brightness everywhere. If the item looks yellow, remove warm room lighting and take another frame. If only one edge is sharp, move the phone slightly farther back and refocus; avoid trying to rescue missing detail with sharpening.

Mark the phone and item positions with removable tape once the setup works. Record the time of day and whether a curtain was used. These notes are more useful for the next batch than a filter preset that hides the original problem.

Keep the original as your reference

Save an untouched photo before making background or brightness changes. Compare the edited result with it at full size and as a small listing thumbnail. A soft shadow can be acceptable; an unreadable label is not.

You can stop with the phone's built-in editor at no additional software cost. If you try SokuPhoto for a different setting, use your photo as a reference and inspect the product afterward: AI can change packaging. Current free-access dates and limits are shown below, separately from this photography method.