You do not need a camera. You need a window, something plain to put the item on, and ten minutes of discipline.
The limit that shapes everything
Six photos per listing. The grid shows Photos ({n}/{max}), with Click or drag photos here and JPG, PNG, WebP - Up to {n} photos - Max 10 MB each.
Six is not many. So every slot has a job, and none of them is a second angle of the same thing.
1. Set up once
- Light from a window, at your side. Not behind the item — that silhouettes it. Not behind you — that casts your shadow across it. Side light shows texture, which is what a buyer is trying to see.
- No overhead bulb at the same time. Mixing daylight and a yellow bulb gives you a colour nobody can correct, and colour is what returns are made of.
- A plain background. A sheet of paper, a plain cloth, the back of a cupboard. Grey or white. Not your bedspread.
- Phone braced. Against a wall, a stack of books, anything. Hand-held at close range is where the blur comes from.
- Clean the lens. Genuinely — a wipe on your shirt. Half the soft photos on the internet are a fingerprint.
2. The six shots
In this order, because the first one does most of the work:
- The whole item, filling the frame, straight on. This is the thumbnail. It is the entire reason anyone opens the listing, and it has to be legible as a small square on a phone.
- The whole item from the back.
- The detail that proves quality — the weave, the stitching, the hallmark, the maker's stamp.
- The flaw. Close, lit, honest. More on this below.
- Scale — the item next to something a buyer knows the size of, or on a person.
- What is included — box, papers, dust bag, spare buttons, laid out together.
Different categories reorder this, and there is a page per category — photos by category and its equivalents.
3. Photograph the flaw
This is the step that separates a store that lasts from one that does not.
Photograph the mark, the scuff, the missing button, the fading. Close enough to see, lit well enough to judge.
It feels like it costs you the sale. It does the opposite: a buyer who can see the flaw buys with confidence, and a buyer who finds it on arrival opens a dispute. One of those outcomes keeps your money. How to describe condition honestly.
4. Edit, barely
Crop so the item fills the frame. Straighten. Nudge the brightness if the room was dim.
That is all. Adjust photo {n} is there for the crop and straighten.
Do not touch saturation, and do not remove a mark. A photo that is prettier than the item is a return with your name on it, and on Metzee an item not as described comes back whatever your returns policy says.
5. Check it as a buyer
Look at the set as thumbnails on a phone, which is where it will be seen. If the first picture is not instantly readable at that size, reshoot the first picture. Nothing else on the listing matters as much.
For a live show
The thumbnail is the same job at higher stakes — it is what decides whether anyone comes. One item, well lit, filling the frame. Not a collage of twelve things, and not text over a dark photo. Camera and light for shows.
Questions people ask
How many photos should I actually use?
All six, if the item deserves them. Three good ones beat six where four are repeats.
Can I use the manufacturer's photo?
For a sealed new item, as one of the six. Never as the only one — a buyer needs to see the thing you actually have, and for anything used it is a misdescription waiting to happen.
Does a white background look too plain?
Plain is what lets the item be the subject. Save the styled shot for your store cover.
What about a watermark?
Don't. It makes the item harder to see and does not stop anyone.
Why do my photos look yellow?
One light source. Turn the room light off and use the window, or the other way round, but not both.
More: how to photograph an item, a photograph is not the thing, how to write a listing title.