title: "Clothing Photography Plan: Mistakes to Avoid Before Starting" date: 2024-09-12 slug: /clothing-photography-plan word_count: 2200 images: 9
Clothing Photography Plan: Mistakes to Avoid Before Starting
eCommerce for clothing always evolves. Trends might shift every season, yet some elements remain constant. Here are seven costly mistakes clothing photographers make and how to avoid them.
Table of Contents
- 1. Failing to Prepare the Garment
- 2. Failure to Use a Live Model or Mannequin
- 3. Lack of Adequate Imagery
- 4. Failure to Use Adequate Light
- 5. Failure to Use the Appropriate Camera Settings
- 6. Neglecting to Set the Right Colour Space Profile
- 7. No Professional Editing
- FAQ
What are the important aspects to include in a clothing photography plan?
- Prepare the garment
- Use a live model or mannequin
- Use adequate imagery
- Use adequate lighting
- Use the correct camera settings
- Consider setting the right colour space profile
- Apply professional editing
Let us look at translating these into the mistakes we should avoid when planning our photography.
1. Failing to Prepare the Garment
The desire of every retailer is to have products that look good enough to draw the attention of customers. However, certain factors can make your clothes wrinkled and creased — even transportation and storage can wear out clothing. Clothing samples are sometimes received in less-than-favourable condition.
Making sure your garment looks sharp before photographing it is a crucial step, yet many apparel photographers do not even bother, preferring to resort to Photoshop to fix the stains, wrinkles, and other issues caused by storage or transportation.
The truth is that Photoshop is not magic. You need to devote a lot of time to mastering editing techniques, and every edit you make has a "destructive" effect on the reality of the image, often reducing its quality.
This is why you should only use Photoshop for colour correction, background removal, or for final touches — and do everything you can to get a perfect image of the garment on camera.
Make sure the product looks as perfect as possible before you photograph it.
It is essential to examine your product thoroughly. Get rid of stickers, tags, or any other identifying material that ought not to be there. If you notice any creasing as a result of storage, steam or iron it. Tapes and lint rollers are perfect for getting rid of strings and dust from fabrics.
There are certain situations where the wrong samples are sent because of a last-minute mix-up (e.g. colours, patterns, fit). Make sure you have a good grasp of the design changes for every garment to help you edit the sample appropriately during post-production, or you can decide to wait for the correct sample to arrive.
Prefer to leave the editing to the experts? Start your free trial with Pixel by Hand — we handle colour correction, retouching, and background removal so you can focus on shooting.
2. Failure to Use a Live Model or Mannequin
Many clothing photographers underestimate the importance of shape and fit in clothing images, so they do not see the need to photograph garments on live models or mannequins. Instead, they prefer to hang the clothes on hangers or, worse, lay them flat. This is a significant mistake.
The best way to display the shape of the clothing and entice customers is by photographing it on a live model or mannequin. This way, customers can easily visualise themselves wearing the clothes.
With a little bit of styling, mannequins will bring out the best in your products.
Models breathe life into clothes, but if for any reason a model cannot be used, a mannequin can be an excellent substitute — and it is perfect if you are on a low budget.
Seeing the natural drape and shape of the clothes gives customers a realistic idea of what to expect and how the clothing will fit them, enhancing the overall shopping experience.
If the garments are bigger than the mannequin, you can style them by pinning and tucking so that they fit properly. Also, by using mannequins to photograph your products, you can easily create the professional post-production technique known as the "ghost mannequin" effect.
3. Lack of Adequate Imagery
There is a common assumption among clothing photographers that providing an image or two of every product is all it takes to give your customers a proper feel for the quality of your products.
This is a big mistake. It is essential to make sure your potential customers have adequate information about each product by uploading no fewer than 3 images per product — preferably between 5 and 10 if possible.
Websites such as eBay or Amazon allow users to upload between 9 and 12 images for each product. Unfortunately, many retailers do not take advantage of this opportunity to showcase their products fully.
If you have the opportunity, photograph as many angles and views of your products as you can. At the very least, take pictures of the traditional front, back, and side view of every product, then supplement them with details of essential product embellishments like zippers, buttons, or embroidery.
By uploading different images of your products, you make it easier for customers to understand the product better. This will also offer them a richer shopping experience, demonstrate your product's quality, and help guarantee customer satisfaction when the product eventually arrives.
4. Failure to Use Adequate Light
Try not to become one of those eCommerce retailers with product images that look underexposed and dingy. As an online clothing retailer, bright lighting is one of your biggest tools.
Exposing your images correctly will help you showcase the colours and details of your products accurately and give your inventory a clean and professional look. Do not compromise on bright lighting.
Every piece of clothing is unique, and using the right lighting can give your potential customers a better appreciation of the product's uniqueness. With adequate lighting, your camera can produce outstanding quality images without much "grain" or "noise", and with more sharpness.
Dark lighting will produce poor image quality, which can detract from the quality of your products.
The best way to guarantee sufficient lighting is by renting artificial light equipment. If you cannot afford that on your budget, you can try utilising natural light by taking the photograph near a large window and using a reflector panel made with foam board.
5. Failure to Use the Appropriate Camera Settings
If you do not have the right camera settings, your images will never look professional, even if you have extensive Photoshop experience. You can produce good-quality photographs with DSLR cameras, but the wrong settings can have an adverse effect on quality.
Before you start photographing your products, make sure you have adequate understanding of aperture, ISO, and white balance.
ISO
Ensure that the ISO you are using is not higher than 600-640. Using higher ISOs can lead to distracting "noise" or "grain" (coloured or greyish speckles) that make your photograph appear grainy.
When the camera is at a higher ISO, there is only so much sharpness it can capture, which can result in certain details looking soft. By using a tripod, you can maintain your ISO at 200 or 100 for optimal sharpness and clarity.
Aperture
Aperture — represented by your camera's f-number setting (e.g. f/14, f/2.6) — is responsible for controlling focus. A larger aperture number can focus on more of the image.
From our experience working with hundreds of clients, using f/22 gives a sharper garment than f/3.5. This is why you should make sure your aperture is higher than f/11, as this will make it possible to focus on every aspect of your product.
White Balance
White balance is the colour base of an image. Generally, orange and red hues are considered "warm", while purple and blue hues are referred to as "cool".
An image's balance is largely reliant on the source of light used as well as the white balance setting of the camera, which controls the camera's interpretation of the colours recorded. There are different types of light sources, but fluorescent, tungsten, natural, and LED are the most common.
Your white balance can be set according to the light source you decide to use, or you can set it to AUTO and leave the choice to the camera.
Whatever you decide, make sure you set your white balance correctly, or you might end up in Photoshop trying to recreate the right colours.
6. Neglecting to Set the Right Colour Space Profile
Many product photographers are unaware of the essential step that involves converting edited photos to an internet-ready colour space profile.
Colour space involves a specific range of colours that can be represented in a particular image. CMYK, Adobe RGB, and sRGB are colour space options. If you fail to use the right colour space, the colour of the product will be inconsistent when viewed through different web browsers, computer screens, or websites.
The ideal colour space profile for consistent imagery and vibrancy across different browsers, screens, and sites is sRGB. If you set your camera to sRGB from the start, there is no need to convert the file after editing. However, sRGB's colour range is narrower than the default RGB of your camera, which is why many professionals prefer to convert after editing so as not to limit their editing flexibility.
7. No Professional Editing
Many eCommerce retailers do not bother to edit their product images properly, particularly the cropping, colour, background, and alignment. The best approach is to keep every alignment, background, and crop identical for all the images on your site. If you want to keep your images consistent and reduce the time spent during image editing, develop standard specifications for both editing and photographing.
Alignments
Ensure that all your items are the same size and centred within the image, so that all the corners, edges, and angles align together. Having well-aligned images will boost your website's brand appeal as well as that of your products. The best way to get perfect alignment is by creating a set guideline for your Photoshop template.
Background
The different colours that can be used as a background for your products is endless.
At first glance it might not appear very important, but making sure your product images are consistent with one another can improve your website's professionalism drastically and enhance its appearance.
Picking one style for your background and sticking with it can also reduce your image editing time. It is widely considered that light grey and white backgrounds are the most attractive for product imagery.
Colour
Giving an inaccurate representation of the colours of your garment is another common mistake made in clothing photography.
Although you may be able to get accurate colour with your camera if it is allowed to choose through AUTO mode, certain colours — like reds — are not easily captured on camera and more often than not require editing with photo editing software.
It is easy for potential customers to become frustrated when colours are poorly represented, so take the time to make sure your products have the right colours before uploading them. The aim is for your potential customers to have a good idea of what they will be getting if they decide to buy.
After correcting the colours, do not forget to convert the images to sRGB format to ensure that web browsers, websites, and users' screens will not alter the colours you worked to produce.
Cropping
Cropping and alignment are similar. It is essential to crop your product images identically to give your customers a consistent experience on your site. If you use guidelines for your alignment, then consistently cropping and sizing your images according to the image specifications of your website should not be a problem.
About Pixel by Hand
We are a professional product photo editing service with over 10 years' experience and 380+ eCommerce clients worldwide. We work with businesses across the globe, perfecting their images for eCommerce websites.
From background removal and ghost mannequin editing to colour correction and alignment standardisation, we handle all aspects of clothing photo post-production so you can focus on growing your business.
See the difference for yourself. Send us your images for a free sample edit — no obligation, no credit card required. We will show you exactly what professional editing can do for your product photography.
FAQ
What is the most common mistake in clothing photography?
Failing to prepare the garment properly before shooting. Wrinkles, creases, stray threads, and stickers are much harder to fix in post-production than they are to address before you pick up the camera. Always steam or iron your garments and inspect them thoroughly before shooting.
What camera settings should I use for clothing photography?
Keep your ISO below 640 (ideally 100-200 with a tripod), set your aperture to f/11 or higher for maximum sharpness across the garment, and use a slow shutter speed with a tripod for stability. Set your white balance to match your light source or use AUTO.
Do I need to convert my images to sRGB?
Yes. sRGB is the standard colour space for web display. If you do not convert your images to sRGB, the colours may appear differently across various browsers, devices, and screens. You can either set your camera to sRGB from the start or convert during post-production editing.
How many product images should I upload per clothing item?
We recommend a minimum of 5 images per product: front, back, side, a detail close-up, and either a lifestyle or on-model shot. If your platform allows more (Amazon permits up to 9), use all available slots to give customers the fullest possible picture of your product.
Is it worth outsourcing clothing photo editing?
For most eCommerce businesses, yes. Professional editing ensures consistency across your entire catalogue, saves you significant time, and delivers results that are difficult to achieve without specialist skills. Services like Pixel by Hand offer fast turnaround times and competitive pricing, making outsourcing both practical and cost-effective.