How to batch shoot a whole catalogue in one day

Shooting one product at a time sounds natural, but it is slow. You set up the light, shoot, pack away, then set up again for the next item. Batch shooting reverses this: you build a setup once and run many products through it. Done well, one focused session can cover a large part of your catalogue. How much depends on your products and your energy, so do not plan around a fixed number.

Prep the day before

Most of the work happens before you pick up the camera.

• Clean everything. Wipe products, remove stickers and lint. Retouching dust later takes longer than wiping it now. See avoiding fingerprints and dust.
• Charge and clear. Charge your phone, free up storage, and clean the lens.
• Write a shot list. For each product, note the angles you need. Our post on which angles to shoot gives a base set you can adapt.
• Gather props and backgrounds in one box so you are not hunting for them mid-session.

Group products by setup

This is the heart of batching. Go through your list and sort items by how they will be photographed:

1. Flat-lay on a white or coloured sheet.
2. Standing products on a surface with a backdrop.
3. Close-ups for small items such as jewellery or pins.
4. Lifestyle or in-use shots with props or a model.

Each group needs different light and positioning. Shoot all of group one, then change the setup once, and move on to group two.

Order the day around light

If you use natural light, do the groups that need the best light first. Window light changes through the day, and conditions you like at one hour may be gone later. Our guide to window light explains how to find a good spot. Keep lifestyle shots, which are more forgiving, for the end. If the weather is poor, read shooting on dull or rainy days before you plan an outdoor session.

Lock your settings

Once your first shot looks right, do not keep changing things. Fix the distance, the phone position and the exposure. A tripod or a stack of books marked with tape helps. When the setup is stable, every product comes out with the same look, which is exactly what you want from a batch.

Shoot in a loop

For each product in a group:

1. Place it, check the edges and the label direction.
2. Shoot every angle on the shot list in the same order.
3. Take one extra frame of the product next to a coin or hand for scale if useful.
4. Swap in the next product.

Doing identical steps repeatedly builds a rhythm and reduces mistakes. A habit that helps: name or number the products on a sheet of paper and photograph the paper first, so you know which frames belong to which item when you are sorting later.

Review before you pack up

Do a quick pass while the setup is still standing. Zoom in on each product's main image and check focus and cropping. Re-shooting something now takes a minute; re-shooting it next week means rebuilding the whole setup. Our pre-upload checklist works well here.

Edit and upload in a second sitting

Keep editing and uploading separate from shooting. Tired eyes make poor edits. Apply the same editing steps to every image in a group so colours and brightness match, then add them to your catalogue. If you are still deciding how your products should be organised, read planning your catalogue before uploading.