# Professional vs DIY Product Photography

Source: https://dijitulmedia.co.uk/compare/professional-vs-diy-product-photography/
Updated: 2026-10-12

> DIY product photography with a phone and lightbox can work for small ranges and quick social posts. Professional product photography gives consistent lighting, accurate colour and images that meet marketplace rules first time. dijitul shoots product photography on location from £25 + VAT per image, with half-day shoots from £295 + VAT for larger ranges.

## Key facts

- Amazon main images need a pure white background (RGB 255, 255, 255) and the product filling about 85% of the frame
- Amazon zoom needs at least 1000 px on the longest side
- Phones and lightboxes suit small, matte products; shiny, glass and large items are harder
- Consistent lighting across a range matters as much as any single image
- DIY costs time: setting up, shooting, cutting out and editing each image
- dijitul: from £25 + VAT per image, half day from £295 + VAT, on location

## DIY and professional compared

| | DIY (phone and lightbox) | Professional photographer |

| Upfront cost | Low: lightbox, tripod, maybe a light | dijitul: from £25 + VAT per image |
| Your time | Set-up, shooting, cutting out and editing | Brief, prepare products, approve |
| Consistency | Varies with daylight and set-up | Repeatable lighting across a range |
| Difficult products | Glass, chrome, jewellery and dark items are hard | Lit specifically for reflective and dark surfaces |
| Marketplace rules | Achievable with care and editing | Shot and edited to the rules |
| Lifestyle images | Limited by location and props | Planned scenes and styling |
| Best for | Small ranges, quick social posts, frequent new stock | Launches, main listing images, catalogues, ads |

## When DIY is good enough

A current phone camera, a tripod, a lightbox or a large sheet of white card, and a window with soft daylight can produce perfectly usable product shots, particularly for small, matte items such as soaps, prints, textiles or packaged goods. If you add new stock every week and post to social media daily, doing some of it yourself is often the only practical option.

Help yourself with a fixed set-up: same spot, same time of day or same lights, camera on a tripod at the same height, and the same white balance setting. Shoot slightly wider than you need and crop later. Consistency is what makes a DIY range look professional.

## Where DIY usually struggles

**Reflective products.** Glass, polished metal, glossy packaging and jewellery reflect everything in the room, including you and your phone. Controlling those reflections takes large diffused lights and careful angles.

**Pure white backgrounds.** Amazon's main-image rules call for a pure white background (RGB 255, 255, 255), the product alone without added text, graphics or watermarks, and the product filling around 85% of the frame. A lightbox photo usually comes out pale grey, so each image needs cutting out or careful editing, which takes time per product.

**Colour accuracy.** Customers return items that look a different colour in person. Phones often boost saturation and shift colour under mixed lighting. A calibrated workflow with a grey reference reduces that.

**Scale and range.** Fifty products shot over three weekends under different light rarely match. Category pages show the difference immediately.

## What professional product photography includes

dijitul shoots product photography on location at your premises, so stock does not need to be packed and posted. Images start from £25 + VAT each, and larger ranges are often better value as a half day from £295 + VAT or a full day from £495 + VAT. Travel outside the Mansfield and Nottinghamshire area is quoted.

You receive edited images on white for marketplaces and catalogues, sized at 2000 px on the longest side so they qualify for zoom, plus any lifestyle or detail shots agreed in the brief. Retouching covers dust removal, colour correction and clean cut-outs; we do not change how the product looks, because images must represent what the customer receives.

## A mixed approach

Many retailers combine the two. Professional photos for main listing images, hero products, adverts and the website homepage, where quality has the most effect; DIY photos for quick social posts, behind-the-scenes content and stock that changes weekly. A short brief from us on angles, background and crop can help your DIY shots sit alongside the professional ones.

Work out the real cost of DIY before deciding. If cutting out and colour-correcting each image takes you fifteen minutes, a range of 80 products is a full weekend before any photos are taken. Compare that with the per-image price and with what else you could be doing with the time. For a small, stable range, DIY may still win; for a launch or a seasonal range with tight deadlines, a professional shoot is often cheaper once your own hours are counted.

Prepare products well either way. Remove price stickers, iron or steam textiles, wipe fingerprints off glossy surfaces and have spare samples ready in case one is marked. Those minutes save far more time in editing.

See design for retailers for more on marketplace images and shop graphics.

## FAQs

### How much does professional product photography cost?

dijitul's product photography starts from £25 + VAT per image, shot on location at your premises. For larger ranges a half day from £295 + VAT or full day from £495 + VAT is often better value. Travel beyond Mansfield and Nottinghamshire is added to the quote.

### Can I take Amazon product photos with my phone?

Yes, if the result meets Amazon's rules: pure white background (RGB 255, 255, 255), the product alone with no added text or watermarks, and the product filling about 85% of the frame. Most phone shots need editing to achieve a true white. dijitul shoots and edits images to these rules.

### What size should product photos be?

For Amazon zoom, at least 1000 pixels on the longest side. dijitul supplies 2000 pixel images so they have headroom for zoom and cropping, plus smaller web-optimised versions for your own site and social media where needed.

### Why do my DIY product photos look grey?

Cameras expose for the average brightness of a scene, so a white background often comes out light grey. Mixed daylight and room lighting can also tint it. Adjusting exposure, using consistent light and editing the background to pure white fixes it; dijitul does this as part of every product shoot.

### Do you need us to send products to you?

No. dijitul shoots product photography on location at your premises, so stock does not need to be packed and posted. Tell us the number of products, sizes and any reflective items in advance so we can plan lighting and quote.

## Prices and contact

Prices (all from, + VAT): Logo design £150; Brand identity pack £395; Business cards or letterhead £75; Flyer or leaflet £95; Brochure £295; Social media graphics pack £99; Photography, half day £295; Photography, full day £495; Product photography £25 per image; Video £695; 2D/3D CAD and design time £45 an hour. All prices are "from" and exclude VAT. Every job gets a fixed price before work starts. Printing, and travel for shoots beyond the Mansfield and Nottinghamshire area, are quoted separately. Contact: https://dijitulmedia.co.uk/contact/ · 01623 650333 · info@dijitul.uk