You can make a clean, sellable product photograph with a phone, a tablet and a laptop. The phone is the camera, the tablet is a glowing white base, and the laptop is a soft fill light. I have shot small catalogues this way in hotel rooms. The limits are size and patience, not quality.
Three screens, three jobs
| Device | Role | Setting |
|---|---|---|
| Tablet, flat | Backlit base and background | White screen, fullscreen, full brightness |
| Laptop or monitor, upright | Soft key or fill light | White screen, full brightness |
| Phone | Camera | Exposure and focus locked |
If you only have a tablet, use a window as the key light and a sheet of white paper as fill. If you only have a laptop, stand a white card behind the product and use the laptop as the light.
Setting up
- Lay the tablet flat. Open the white screen, go fullscreen, hide the controls, and turn brightness to maximum. Lock touch input with Guided Access or app pinning.
- Place a sheet of clear acrylic, glass from a picture frame, or a clear document sleeve on top to protect the screen.
- Stand a sheet of white card or foam board behind the tablet, curving up, as a backdrop for anything taller than the tablet.
- Open a white screen on the laptop, full brightness, and place it to one side and slightly in front, angled at the product.
- Put a white card opposite the laptop to bounce light back.
- Turn off the room lights.
Phone settings that matter
- Clean the lens. A pocket-smeared lens is the commonest cause of hazy pictures.
- Use the main camera. It has the best sensor. Avoid the ultra-wide; it distorts.
- Step back and zoom to 2×, or use the telephoto lens. Closer focal lengths stretch the product’s shape.
- Lock focus and exposure. Press and hold on the product until the lock indicator appears.
- Raise exposure. Drag the exposure slider up until the base is white. The phone will otherwise render all that white as grey.
- Turn off the flash and any beauty or scene modes. Leave HDR on auto unless it flattens the picture.
- Use a stand and the timer. A small tripod or a stack of books, and a two-second timer, remove shake.
Lock, then lift. Lock focus and exposure on the product, then lift the exposure until the white is white.
Stopping bands and flicker
Phones use very short exposures in bright scenes, and screens that dim by flickering show up as dark bands. Two fixes: keep every screen at full brightness, where most do not flicker, and lower the scene brightness slightly so the phone chooses a slower shutter. If your camera app has a pro or manual mode, set the shutter to 1/60 s or slower. If you see a rainbow ripple on the base, the lens is resolving the tablet’s pixels: raise the product on the acrylic by a centimetre, or lay a sheet of tracing paper on the tablet.
White balance
Screens showing white are close to daylight colour. If the room is dark and the screens are the only lights, the phone’s auto white balance is usually accurate. If a warm lamp or a sunset window is also lighting the product, you will get an orange side and a blue side. Turn the lamp off. In a pro mode, set white balance to daylight, around 5500 to 6500 K, and leave it there for the whole set so every image matches. If you want a warmer mood, change the laptop’s screen to warm ivory instead of changing the camera.
Three angles that sell
- Straight down for flat items: jewellery, cards, cosmetics. Keep the phone parallel to the tablet; use the level indicator in the camera app. More in flat-lays against a screen.
- Forty-five degrees for most objects: shows the top and the front, as a customer would see it on a table.
- Eye level for bottles, jars and anything with a label. Stand the white card behind and keep verticals vertical.
Glass, liquids and shiny things
The backlit tablet is at its best here. Glass glows, liquids show their colour, and there is no shadow to clean up. For a dark edge on clear glass, stand strips of black card either side, just outside the frame. For shiny metal, the laptop’s white screen reflects as a clean bright panel; move it until that reflection sits where you want it. See jewellery on white.
Know the limits
- The product must be smaller than the tablet for the base to stay white all round. Larger items need a white sweep and more light; see the $20 lightbox.
- A laptop screen is a weak light. Work in a dark room and expect slower shutter speeds, hence the stand.
- Screens are fragile. No heavy, sharp or wet items directly on the glass.
Editing on the phone
- Crop square, with the product filling most of the frame.
- Raise whites or highlights until the background is clean. Stop before the product washes out.
- Lift shadows slightly if the front of the product is dark.
- Leave saturation alone, or reduce it a touch. Phones oversaturate.
- Check the corners are white by placing the image against a white page.
For a strict marketplace main image, finish on a computer: the method is in removing shadows from white backgrounds, and the rules are in Amazon product photo requirements.
Sizes for export
Recent phones produce 12 to 48 megapixel images, far more than a marketplace needs. Export square at 2000 × 2000 px as JPEG. If you need a perfectly clean background, cut the product out and place it on a base from the generator, which has the five sizes I use ready as a batch.
The short version
Tablet flat as a glowing base, laptop as a soft light, room dark, phone on a stand at 2×. Lock focus and exposure, lift exposure until the white is white, keep screens at full brightness. Open the white screen on both and shoot what is on your desk.
FAQ
Yes, for small products. Good light, a steady stand and locked exposure matter more than the camera.
It exposes for mid-grey. Lock exposure on the product and raise the exposure slider.
The main camera at about 2× zoom, or the telephoto. Avoid the ultra-wide.