Shopify · Product photography · Ecommerce
Shopify product photos: size, backgrounds and fixing bad photos
The best image size for Shopify, how to keep product photos consistent, and how to fix dark, cluttered or blurry shots without a reshoot.
· 3 min read
Your product photos are your shop window. On Shopify, they're also your collection pages, your Google Shopping listings and your social previews. When they're dark, cluttered or all different shapes, the whole store looks less trustworthy, even if the products are great.
The good news is that most photo problems don't need a reshoot. Here's what size to use, how to make a catalogue look consistent, and how to fix the most common problems with photos you already have.
What size should Shopify product photos be?
Shopify recommends 2048 × 2048 pixels for square product images, and each image has to be smaller than 20 MB. Square is the safest shape because most themes show product grids as squares, and a portrait or landscape photo gets cropped or padded to fit.
- Use the same shape for every product, so your collection pages line up.
- Go big enough for zoom. A small photo looks fine in the grid and blurry when a shopper zooms in to check the stitching.
- Save photos as JPG or WebP for most products, and PNG only when you need a transparent background.
- Write alt text for each image: what it is, its colour and its main detail. It helps shoppers using screen readers and it helps search.
Make every product look like it belongs in one shop
Shoppers judge a store by its collection page before they open a single product. A grid where every product sits on the same background, in the same light, at the same size looks professional. A grid of mismatched phone photos looks like a garage sale, even with the same products.
- Pick one background for the first image of every product: white, light grey or one brand colour.
- Keep the product the same size in the frame, with similar space around it.
- Use the same light. If some photos are warm and some are cool, relight them to match.
- Save lifestyle and model photos for the second and third images.
How to fix the most common photo problems
Relight the photo with even, studio-style light, keeping the product's real colours.
Don't just push brightness and saturation, which shifts colour and blows out whites.
Remove the background and put the product on a clean colour.
Add a soft shadow underneath so it sits on the surface instead of floating.
Upscale it to a larger size, then check fine details like text and stitching.
If the original is badly out of focus, a reshoot is still the honest fix.
Remove the text and fill the space so it looks untouched.
Only remove text from photos you own or have the right to use.
Make a ghost mannequin shot, so the garment keeps its worn shape.
Or show it on an AI model, in a studio or street scene.
Extra tips for clothing stores
- Show the garment on a body, a model or a ghost mannequin, as well as flat. Shape sells clothes.
- Steam or unwrinkle before you shoot, or fix creases afterwards. Wrinkles read as cheap.
- Photograph every colour, rather than recolouring one photo and hoping it matches the real fabric.
- Add a virtual try-on button, so shoppers can see it on themselves as well as on a model.
Photos for Google Shopping and marketplaces
If you sync your Shopify products to Google, Meta or a marketplace, the first image matters even more. Google's guidelines ask for the product on a plain background, with no promotional text, watermarks or borders. A clean first image that works in your store will usually work everywhere else too.
Turn your next take into a video people finish.
Captions timed to every word, a pinned hook and a tighter edit, all from the footage you already have.
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