Editing Product Photos

Updated October 2026

Good listing photos need very little editing. We do the same few things to almost every shot, in this order, and then stop.

  1. Crop and straighten. Fill the frame and level it using the grid. Square crops suit most marketplace thumbnails.
  2. Brightness. Raise it until the background looks clean. Stop before the brightest parts of the item turn into blank white.
  3. White balance. In most apps it's called warmth and tint. If white paper looks blue, warm it up. If it looks yellow, cool it down. Getting the color right matters, since "the color was different" is a common return reason.
  4. A little contrast, and lift the shadows if detail is hiding in them.

Sharpening is optional. A touch is fine. Too much puts halos around edges.

Apps

The Photos app that came with your phone (Apple Photos or Google Photos) does everything above. If you want more control, Snapseed is free and has a brush for brightening just the background. Lightroom's free mobile version lets you save settings as a preset and apply them to a whole batch.

Batches

If you shot ten items under the same light, edit one, then copy those settings to the other nine. Apple Photos can copy and paste edits, and Lightroom uses presets. Your listings will match, and you'll be done much sooner.

Background removal

Phones can now lift an item off its background with a tap. Sometimes it's great. Check the edges at full size, especially fur, fringe, hair and clear plastic. If the cut-out looks rough, the original photo is usually better. Our AI background removal page compares the tools, including eBay's own.

Where we draw the line

Editing should make the photo look like the thing the buyer will open. We don't remove scratches or stains, and we don't push colors to make something look newer. It isn't worth the return or the feedback. That goes double for AI tools, which we cover in where to draw the line.