A product photo workflow for online retailers
A product range gets to the shop faster when the photographs follow one repeatable route: choose the views, name the files, agree the finish, send the editing, then check the results against the listings. Picarm handles the cut-outs, retouching and composites while you prepare the product information.
Use this workflow for a new range or a regular stock intake. You can order one photograph or a batch, see the price before paying and request the sizes you need. Cut-outs start at 99p and retouching at £1.99 a photograph. There is no minimum order charge.
Plan the listing before the shoot
Make a simple list of product codes and required views. A main image introduces the whole product; other photographs can show the back, a useful detail, scale or packaging. Decide which views answer a buyer's questions for this particular range. The point is a predictable set, rather than photographing every item from every possible angle.
Keep a column for each sales channel and check its current image requirements. Your own website, a marketplace and a social post may need different crops. Record the dimensions and the background required for each destination. A square preset is convenient, but the place you sell determines the specification. For an Etsy listing, our Etsy photography guide is a useful preparation check.
Photograph one complete product first and inspect it before moving through the range. Check focus, exposure, edges and room around the object. If the camera has clipped off a handle or lost the printed detail, correct the shoot now. The home product photography guide covers a straightforward setup with a phone, window and card.
Prepare one organised batch
Select the final frames from the originals, keeping your untouched source folder. Give each file a product code and view, such as MUG-BLUE-front.jpg or MUG-BLUE-detail.jpg. Use the same view names throughout. This gives the editor a clear identifier and gives you a way to match the result to the right listing.
Remove accidental duplicates and failed frames before uploading. Keep different versions of the same product identifiable; “final”, “final2” and “newfinal” do not explain which item a photograph shows. Where an item has several colours, label the actual colour photographed. Editing should preserve that colour accurately, rather than make a blue item match a green listing.
Upload the selection together and check that the expected thumbnails appear. Wait for failed or unfinished uploads to be resolved. While the editing order is being prepared, you can work on descriptions, dimensions and stock information in your own shop system. Picarm supplies image files; publishing them to the shop remains your step.
Choose the editing and reuse settings
Set up a representative photograph first. Choose Cut out for background removal, Retouch when the product itself needs cleaning, or Composite for work such as replacing a photographed label or assembling parts. Retouching includes the cut-out; a composite includes both. The cut-out examples help distinguish a background job from work on the product.
Choose alignment, shadow, sizes and file types before copying the settings. JPEG is standard; transparent PNG and layered PSD are available under File types. Up to eight additional sizes can be requested, with no extra charge for sizes or file types. Specify the sizes you actually need rather than asking for every preset.
Use Same on all to give the other photographs the same services, then adjust the exceptions. It replaces their existing service settings and has no undo, so use it before individual customisation. Notes remain unchanged. A lifestyle image that should keep its surroundings is an exception worth checking explicitly. Our batch-processing walkthrough shows the controls step by step.
Give the range a clear brief
Put instructions shared by the range in Anything we should know about this batch? Use the Note on an individual photograph for a specific exception. A practical brief for a homeware range might read:
White backgrounds for the main product views. Keep the glaze colours and printed details faithful to the originals. Centre the products with consistent space around them and keep handles fully visible. Detail views should retain the surface texture. Lifestyle photographs keep their original backgrounds.
Make the service choices agree with the brief. A sentence requesting a composite does not select that paid service for you. Attach relevant source files in the composite controls and explain which part goes where. Identify exceptions by filename rather than by their current position in the grid.
Example cost: ten products with two retouched photographs each means 20 photographs at £1.99, or £39.80 for those retouches. This is an illustrative order with no extra colour variants or composites; check your actual total and any applicable tax at checkout. One well-chosen frame can be tried first when you are establishing a new finish.
Review, download and publish
Before paying, check the count, saved instructions, exceptions and total. Work is back the next working day. When it is ready, review a representative product and then the full range. Compare framing, background, colour and important details. Look particularly at text, transparent edges, handles and anything close to the crop.
Request changes on the affected photographs when necessary. Once you are happy, approve and download the files. In your shop, match each image to its product and view, arrange the listing order, and inspect the actual thumbnail as well as the full image. A correct full-size file can still be cropped awkwardly by a shop theme.
Keep the final brief and size list alongside your local product records. They become the starting specification for the next intake. Check them when your shop design or sales channels change. The time saving comes from reusing clear decisions and reviewing exceptions, rather than rediscovering the whole process for every delivery.
Before the range goes live
- Every product code has the planned views?
- The colours, labels and product condition remain accurate?
- Shared settings were applied before exceptions?
- The requested sizes work in the actual shop layout?
- The right photographs are attached to the right listings?