How to photograph shoes: angles, surface, cutout

Short answer

To take pictures of shoes, clean them, stuff them so they hold their shape, and put them on a plain matt surface beside a window out of direct sun. Hold the phone at the height of the shoe rather than above it, and take the set a buyer would ask for: a side view, a three-quarter view from the front, the back, the top, the sole and a close-up of any wear. Cut them out only when a marketplace or a shop wants one background: check the laces, the gap under the arch and the edge of the sole in the compare view, and add a soft shadow so the pair does not float.

A shoe is a small sculpture that sells on its shape, its condition and its colour, and the usual phone photo gets all three wrong. It is taken from above, so the toe shrinks. It is lit from a lamp, so the colour is off. It sits on a carpet or a bed, so the edge disappears. A buyer who cannot pick the shoe up wants to see it from every side, and wants to see the wear. This guide goes through the surface, the light, the set of angles and the shaping, and then covers the one place software helps, which is when a marketplace or a shop wants every pair on the same background.

Say the limits first. getPNG removes a background; it does not clean a scuff, straighten a collapsed shoe or fix a colour that the light has changed. Those are done at the table. The home setup of window light, a fill card and a steady phone is in how to take product photos at home, and shoes follow the same rules with a few of their own.

Prepare the shoe

The camera shows what a hand would feel, so do the work before the picture.

Clean it. Wipe off dirt, brush the soles and the welt, and take stones out of the tread. At the size of a screen a speck of mud is a stain.
Stuff it. Fill the toe box and the heel with tissue or paper until the shoe holds the shape it has on a foot. A collapsed heel and a creased toe read as damage even when the shoe is sound.
Straighten the laces and the tongue. Tie the laces or tuck them in, and centre the tongue. A bow that has fallen to one side is the first thing a buyer sees.
Match the pair. Both shoes should face the same way and sit at the same angle, with the toes level. Where you show one shoe, choose the one in better condition for the main picture and show the other in the set.

The surface and the light

A shoe is darker and heavier than a ring or a plate, and it casts a shadow, so the surface and the light decide whether the picture looks placed or dropped.

A matt, flat surface. Card, paper or plain cloth, pulled smooth. Glass, varnished wood and glossy plastic show a mirror image of the shoe, and a patent or polished toe cap reflects the room as well.
Contrast with the shoe. Use pale card for black and brown shoes, and a mid grey or darker card for white trainers, which would vanish on white. A ground near the colour of the shoe is the commonest reason a cutout goes wrong.
A window, out of direct sun. Put the surface beside the window and the shoe on it, with the light coming from the side. A bright overcast day is ideal, and a sheet of thin white paper over the glass softens a sunny one.
Turn the lamps off, and skip the flash. A warm bulb and a window give two colours on one shoe, and a flash gives a hard white spot on a glossy toe and a flat, shadowless look on the rest.
A white card on the far side. A sheet of white card just out of the frame lifts the shadow on the side away from the window. Product photography setup describes the fill card and why it comes first among the cheap upgrades.

The set of angles

Buyers cannot try the shoe on, so the set of pictures has to answer what they would ask in a shop. Hold the phone at the height of the shoe for the first two views, and stand back and crop afterwards, because a lens close to a shoe exaggerates the nearest part.

View	What it shows	Watch out for
Side, level with the shoe	The profile, the heel height and the line of the sole	A camera held high, which shrinks the toe
Three-quarter from the front	The toe, the vamp and the shape in one frame	Cutting off the heel at the edge of the picture
The back	The heel counter and any wear on the heel	A crooked shoe, which makes it look twisted
The top, looking down	The opening, the tongue, the lining and the laces	Shadow of your own hand or phone falling across it
The sole	The tread, and how worn it is	A dirty surface under the sole, which shows in the print
A close-up of wear	The scuff, the crease or the repair	Leaving it out, which makes the first complaint a return

Mark the places for the shoe and for the phone on the surface with a little tape, so that every pair in a batch is framed the same way. The size and the width are best written in the listing, in your own words, and a photograph of the label inside the shoe is useful beside them.

Find the angle that suits the shoe

Put one shoe on a plain surface beside a window and photograph it from above, looking down at the toe.
Without moving the shoe, lower the phone until the lens is level with the shoe, step back, and photograph it again.
Look at both at full size on a screen.

You should see: the second picture shows the whole profile in proportion, with the toe and the heel in a believable size and a clear line along the sole.

If you do not: if the shoe still looks stubby or lopsided, you are still too high or too close. Lower the phone further, step back and crop afterwards, and check that the shoe sits square to the lens.

When every pair needs the same background

A single pair shot well on a plain surface is a finished photograph. A shop is different, because a grid of listings looks careless when each pair sits on a different floor, and a marketplace may ask for a particular background. This page states no platform rule, because the rules differ and change. Check what the one you use asks for; eBay product photos goes through one of them.

For a shop, cut each shoe out of its surface and put it on the background you need. A transparent PNG keeps the options open: the same cutout goes onto white for a listing, onto a colour for a banner and into a layout for a catalogue. Product photos on a white background covers the steps and the usual pitfalls.

The free way

A pair on one plain background, or a transparent PNG, at full resolution

Drop the photo, check the edges in the compare view, then choose White, a colour or keep it transparent and download. getPNG keeps every pixel of the original, so a large photo comes back at the same size, and nothing is uploaded to do it.

Your photo never leaves this device.Open the white background tool

What to check in the compare view

Shoes have fewer difficult edges than jewellery and more than a box. Open the compare view, zoom to full size and drag the divider around the outline.

The laces and the eyelets. Laces leave small gaps, and a cutout may keep the old surface inside them or lose a thin lace. Rub out any background that was kept and paint back what was removed with the brush.
Mesh and knit uppers. An open weave lets the surface show through the holes. Decide whether you want the new background to show there, as it would on a real shoe, and check that the edge of the weave is not ragged.
The gap under the arch. The space between the sole and the surface is a thin shape that is easy to fill. Check that it is open on a heeled shoe and that a flat sole sits close to the ground.
The edge of the sole. A white or pale sole against a pale surface is the weakest edge in the picture. Look along the whole outline, and where it is lost, shoot again on a darker surface.
Glossy toe caps and patent leather. Their edges pick up the colour of the surface, which leaves a rim of that colour after the swap. Clean edge colour takes the old background back out of the soft pixels at the edge, and the white halo guide explains why a rim forms.
Suede and fabric edges. A fuzzy edge is a gradient a few pixels wide. getPNG keeps that softness rather than cutting it hard, so do not sharpen it back.
The shadow. A cutout removes the shadow under the shoe, and a shoe with no shadow looks as if it floats. The drop shadow option draws a soft one from the outline, and you set the strength, softness and distance, so the same settings look the same on a small picture and a large one.

What a cutout cannot do

A cutout takes away what is behind the shoe. It leaves the shoe exactly as the camera recorded it.

It does not clean dirt, scuffs or creases, and it does not make a collapsed shoe hold its shape.
It does not correct a colour that the light changed. A white trainer shot under a warm lamp stays warm.
It cannot show what is inside the shoe, only keep or remove what the camera saw there.

The honest order is therefore the shoe first, the surface and the light second, the angles third and the cutout last, and only for a shop that wants every pair on the same background.

What usually goes wrong

A stubby, dropped-looking shoe, from a camera held high and close. Lower it to the shoe’s height, step back and crop.
A white shoe that vanishes, from a pale surface. Change the surface, not the edit.
A second pair on the table, from a glossy surface. Use matt card.
A heel that sags and a toe that creases, from a shoe with nothing in it. Stuff it with paper.
A yellow cast, from a lamp mixed with the window. Turn the lamps off.

A window, a sheet of card, a shoe that holds its shape and a set of honest angles are most of what a shoe photograph needs. The cutout is the last step, and only when a shop needs the pairs to match. If what you sell is not hard-edged but soft or flat, how to take product photos at home lists the other products with their own pages, and product photography setup shows which upgrade fixes which fault.

The steps, in short

Clean and shape the shoes. Wipe off dirt, brush the laces straight and stuff the toe and the heel with paper so that the shoe holds the shape it has when worn.
Choose the surface and the light. Use a matt sheet of card or cloth that contrasts with the shoe, and place it beside a window out of direct sun. Turn the room lamps off and do not use the flash.
Shoot the set of angles. Hold the phone level with the shoe and take the side view, the three-quarter view, the back, the top, the sole and a close-up of any wear, using the same marks on the surface each time.
Cut out only for a consistent shop. Drop the best frame on getPNG, check the laces, the arch and the edge of the sole in the compare view, paint back anything missing with the brush, and save a transparent PNG or a version on white.
Put a shadow back. A cutout removes the shadow under the shoe. Add the soft drop shadow so the pair rests on the page rather than floating above it.

Questions

What angles should I photograph a shoe from?

The set a buyer would ask for in a shop: a side view of the whole shoe, a three-quarter view from the front, the back, the top looking down at the opening, the sole, and a close-up of any wear or flaw. Keep the camera level with the shoe for the first two, because a camera held high makes the toe look too small and the heel too large.

What is the best surface for photographing shoes?

A matt one that contrasts with the shoe: pale card for dark shoes, mid grey or a darker card for white and pale ones. Glossy surfaces such as glass or polished wood show a mirror image of the shoe, which looks like a second pair and confuses a cutout. Keep the surface flat and smooth, with no crease where the shoe meets the wall.

Do shoes need a white background to sell?

Not always. Some marketplaces ask for one and others only recommend it, and the rules differ and change, so check the one you use. A plain background of any kind makes colour and shape easier to judge, and a transparent PNG keeps the option open for white later.

How do I stop a shoe looking flat or lumpy?

Stuff the toe box and the heel with tissue or paper so that the leather or fabric holds the shape of a worn shoe, straighten the tongue, and tie or tuck the laces. A shoe that has collapsed shows creases and a sagging heel that a buyer will read as damage.

Can a cutout handle laces and mesh?

Mostly. Laces are a pattern of small gaps, and an open mesh upper lets the old background show through the holes, so a cutout may keep some of it or lose a thin lace. Open the compare view at full size, drag the divider along the laces and the mesh, and rub out or paint back with the brush. The result keeps the full resolution of the photo, and nothing is uploaded.

Will a cutout hide scuffs or marks on a shoe?

It should not, and you should check. A cutout removes what is behind the shoe and leaves the shoe as the camera recorded it, but a scuff on the very edge of the sole can be trimmed with the background. Look at every edge with the compare view, and show any wear in a close-up so that the buyer sees it.

How to take pictures of shoes: the angles, the surface, a clean cutout