How to Create Professional Photos for Web and Catalog [2025]

On the internet, every second counts. If your photos don’t look professional, visitors will simply leave — and go elsewhere.
Whether you’re selling products, services, or presenting a team, high-quality photography is the foundation of trust and success.

Let’s look at how to create photos that look professional — and work perfectly for both the web and print catalogs.

Define Your Goal and Style

Before you pick up the camera, clarify the purpose of your photos.

🎯 Ask yourself:

• Will they be used on an e-shop, website, or printed catalog?
• Should they look minimalist, luxurious, or natural?
• Are they for individual products or for the whole team?

💡 Tip: Create a small moodboard — examples of styles, colors, and lighting. It will help you maintain a consistent visual direction.

Natural Light Works Wonders

One of the most common mistakes? Harsh shadows and overexposure.

🧠 Lighting principles:

• Use soft natural light — ideally near a window or with a diffuser.
• If using lamps, point them from the side at a 45° angle.
• Avoid mixing multiple light sources (daylight + bulb light).

📷 Recommendation:
For product photography, use a softbox or light tent to ensure even illumination.

Background: Clean, Consistent, Uncluttered

The photo should highlight the product — not the environment.

🧩 For web: white, gray, or softly colored backgrounds.
📖 For print catalogs: you can add textures or tones that match your brand.

💡 Tip: For portraits, use a neutral background with a slight depth of field — it brings the subject forward and feels natural.

Mind the Composition

A beautiful photo comes from composition, not expensive gear.

📐 Rules that work:

• Rule of thirds: place the main subject slightly off-center.
• Negative space: let the subject “breathe.”
• Symmetry and lines: work perfectly for architecture or product shots.

Colors That Sell

Colors influence both perception and mood.

🎨 Guidelines:

• Stick to your brand’s color palette.
• Maintain color accuracy — the product should look true to life.
• Avoid heavy filters that distort reality.

💡 Tip: For e-commerce, ensure all products share consistent lighting and color tone.

Camera Settings

You don’t have to be a professional, but a few basics go a long way.

⚙️ Recommended:

• ISO 100–400 → minimal noise.
• Aperture f/4–f/8 → enough depth of field.
• Tripod → crucial for sharp images.
• RAW format → greater flexibility for editing and color correction.

Post-Production: Fine-Tuning Details

Editing photos isn’t cheating — it’s the final step of a professional workflow.

🧠 Focus on:

• White balance and exposure.
• Cleaning the background (dust, glare, small distractions).
• Cropping to correct aspect ratio (3:2 or 4:5).
• Slight contrast and sharpness enhancement.

💡 Tools: Lightroom, Capture One, Snapseed, or Photopea (for quick online edits).

Optimizing for Web and Print

📦 For web:

• Export as JPEG (quality 80–90%) or WebP.
• Keep resolution around 2000 px on the long side.
• Add alt text for SEO.

📖 For print catalogs:

• Use 300 DPI.
• Export as TIFF or high-quality JPEG.

💡 Tip: Name your files descriptively (“product_name_color.jpg”) — it helps with organization and SEO.

Where to Keep All Photos Organized

After shooting and editing comes the question: where to store them?

This is where Infiry comes in — your central photo library.

Infiry allows you to:

• 📂 Store all photos in full quality, organized by projects.
• 🏷 Add descriptions, colors, keywords, and author info.
• 🔎 Search by content, color, or photo type.
• ☁️ Share collections with designers, clients, or printers.
• 🤖 Automatically generate keywords using AI.

👉 Try Infiry for free and keep all your product, catalog, and presentation photos easily accessible — organized and secure.