E-Commerce Photography Workflow in Lisbon: Lighting, Mannequins and Retouching

We buy clothes online all the time. We scroll through clean product photos, compare colours and shapes, zoom into fabric details, and usually never think about how much work is behind one simple e-commerce image.

In this episode I show the inside of an e-commerce clothing photoshoot at Comuna Studios in Portugal. We photographed around forty items for Z Block Prints, a clothing brand and friends of our studio. The shoot included dresses, shirts, trousers and bags, and the goal was to create clean, consistent product images for an online shop.

This workflow is useful for photographers, studio owners, fashion brands and anyone planning product photography in Lisbon or elsewhere in Portugal. E-commerce can be a strong business direction, but good product photography is not only about pressing the shutter. It is about preparation, lighting, speed, consistency and knowing which small tricks will save hours in retouching later.

Preparing the studio for e-commerce photography

Everything starts with the location. For this shoot we worked in our own studio on a white cyclorama.

The first step was lighting the background. I mounted a Godox AD400 with a small softbox high on a motorised truss, aimed directly at the white cyc. In Portugal, people often call this type of truss “Americana.” The purpose is simple: create an even white background behind the mannequin.

You do not need a motorised truss to do this. A boom arm or a regular light stand placed to the side can work too. What matters is controlling the background separately from the main light on the clothing.

For the product itself, I used two Godox AD600 Pro lights with large softboxes. You can use different flash units, but for this type of clothing photography it is important to have enough power to shoot at a closed aperture while keeping the whole item sharp. Large softboxes help create soft, even light across the fabric.

Because my softboxes were not identical, I adjusted the power of each light separately using a Godox trigger from the camera. The goal was not a dramatic fashion image, but a consistent commercial result where the colour, shape and texture of the clothes are easy to read.

Using black flags for shape and contrast

White studios are convenient, but they can also create too much reflected light. If everything is white, the product can start looking flat.

To add volume, we placed two large black foam boards on the sides of the mannequin, with the black side facing the clothes. These boards block extra reflections from the white walls and create deeper contrast along the sides of the garment.

This is a simple but important trick. In e-commerce photography, small contrast decisions help separate the product from the background and make the final image look more expensive without making it look overly stylised.

Tethered shooting with Capture One

For commercial product photography, the workplace has to be comfortable and fast.

I moved a table with my laptop close to the shooting area and connected the Canon R5 to the computer with a tether cable. A small but important safety detail: always secure the cable near the camera. If someone pulls the cable accidentally, you do not want to damage the camera port.

For this shoot I used Capture One. I am used to it, and it is very comfortable for studio photography and tethered workflows. Lightroom can work too, as long as it supports stable tethering for your camera.

We saved images directly to the laptop, but also recorded them to the camera memory card at the same time. If your camera allows simultaneous recording to the card and computer, use it. A backup is not optional when you are working for a client.

Camera, lens and technical settings

The camera for this shoot was a Canon R5. You can shoot e-commerce with many cameras, but a high-resolution RAW file is important because the retoucher may need to crop or adjust the image without losing quality.

I used a Canon RF 24–70mm f/2.8L zoom lens, mostly around 50–70mm. A zoom lens is useful here because different clothing items need different framing. The main rule is to fill most of the frame with the product while keeping enough space for cropping.

Camera height is also important. We placed the tripod roughly in the middle of the item and avoided shooting from too high or too low. This helps prevent perspective distortion. When we changed from dresses to trousers or bags, we adjusted the camera height and light position.

Before the shoot, we checked the client’s technical guide. The final images needed to be square, 2000 × 2000 pixels, 300 ppi, in the sRGB colour profile, with a specific cream background. We photographed everything on clean white, and the retoucher added the required background colour later in post-production.

Colour accuracy and the grey card

At the beginning of the shoot, we photographed a grey card. In Capture One, I used the white balance eyedropper on the grey card and applied the correction to the rest of the session.

You can sometimes use the white background for white balance, but a grey card is more reliable. In clothing and product photography, accurate colour is critical because customers expect the product online to match the real item.

We also adjusted basic contrast and brightness at the start, so every new photo appeared on the laptop already close to the final look. This speeds up decision-making on set and helps the client or retoucher understand the direction immediately.

For sharpness, I closed the aperture to around f/6.3 or more. The main lights were around 1/32 power, and the background light was stronger, around half power, to keep the cyc clean and even.

Organising clothes before the shoot

While I was setting up the lights, my assistant was preparing the clothes. This is one of the most important parts of a good e-commerce workflow.

Clothes usually arrive in boxes, and even when they do not look terrible, they still need to be steamed. We unpacked the items, divided them into categories and hung them on a rail.

The photographer should not wait. While I photograph one item, the assistant prepares the next one. That rhythm is what makes e-commerce work commercially. Without a good team workflow, the shoot becomes slow and expensive.

We used a good steamer with distilled water and plastic hangers. I avoid wooden hangers because hot steam can damage the wood and stain light clothes. We also removed paper tags before shooting and put them back after finishing.

Working with a transparent mannequin

For this shoot we used a transparent mannequin body without arms or legs. It has different mounting points on the neck, back and bottom, which gives us flexibility depending on the type of garment.

For tops, the mannequin can sit directly on a stand. For trousers, we can hang it from the back using an extension arm, so the stand does not block the pants.

There are expensive professional mannequins with magnetic parts, but this simple transparent mannequin works very well for our workflow. Because it has no arms or legs, it gives us more options for customising the shape of each item.

For example, with a light dress, the sleeves can hang flat and lifeless. To create natural volume, we rolled plastic or thick paper into tubes and placed them inside the sleeves. These small hidden supports help the fabric look more natural in the final image.

Ghost mannequin photography

For many e-commerce clothing images, the final result should look like the clothes are floating on an invisible body. This is often called the ghost mannequin effect.

The process happens in two parts. First, we shoot the main front view of the item on the mannequin. Then we remove the clothing, open the neck or inside label area by hand, and take a separate photo of the inner part.

Later, the retoucher combines those images: the mannequin is removed, the inside label is added back, wrinkles are cleaned, and the final product looks clean, professional and dimensional.

This is why shooting carefully matters. If the neck, sleeves or fabric shape are wrong on set, the retoucher has to spend much more time fixing problems in Photoshop.

Time-saving tricks for shirts and trousers

In e-commerce, speed matters. The goal is not to take twenty versions of every item. We try to make one very good image, fix small issues immediately, delete bad shots and move on.

For symmetrical shirts, we used a useful trick: shoot one sleeve perfectly and mirror it in post-production.

We hid one sleeve behind the mannequin. In the visible sleeve, we placed a plastic tube and the assistant held it slightly from below. The retoucher can later mirror the clean sleeve to the other side, creating a symmetrical final result and saving time on set.

The same idea can work for simple trousers. We placed a plastic tube inside one leg, fixed it with transparent tape, and let the other leg hang. If the fabric and pattern allow it, the retoucher can mirror one side.

But this trick does not work for everything. If the item has an asymmetrical print or a different pattern on each side, you cannot mirror it. In that case, both sides have to be prepared properly by hand, even if it takes more time.

Photographing bags and accessories

At the end of the shoot, we photographed accessories: bags.

For this we used a simple white cube in the studio. Placing bags on a cube helps keep them stable and lets us set the lights at the correct level. To make the bags hold their shape, we filled them from the inside with bubble wrap or paper.

The handles and shape of the bag have to match the client’s expectations. This part may look simple, but accessories often need careful styling. A small change in the handle position can make the product look either cheap or premium.

Speed versus quality in commercial e-commerce photography

Some high-volume studios can shoot one hundred or even one hundred and fifty items in a day. That is possible, especially for fast fashion or basic products where the details are less important.

But premium e-commerce photography is different. When you work with complex prints, delicate fabrics or high-end products, you cannot simply throw the clothing on a mannequin and click. Every wrinkle, pattern line and fabric shape matters.

For this shoot we photographed around forty items, and it took about twelve hours in total. We split it into two days because it was more comfortable to work in two focused six-hour sessions. The disadvantage is that on the second day you have to recreate the lighting, camera height and white balance again, but for this project the comfort and consistency were worth it.

Our approach is to find the right balance between speed and quality. It is usually better to spend one extra minute fixing the product on set than to spend hours repairing mistakes in post-production.

The final result

The difference between the raw studio photo and the final online shop image can be dramatic.

On set, you may see tubes, clamps, tape, hands holding fabric and a visible mannequin. In the final image, the retoucher removes the mannequin, adds the inside label, mirrors sleeves or legs when appropriate, cleans small wrinkles and prepares the file according to the client’s technical requirements.

That is the logic of professional e-commerce photography: a clean final image is created through a combination of studio preparation, controlled lighting, good styling, efficient shooting and precise retouching.

If you are a brand looking for e-commerce photography, product photography or studio photography in Lisbon, Portugal, you can contact me here. I work across photography, video production and cinematography, and our studio setup can support clothing shoots, product campaigns, interviews, podcasts and branded content.

You can also explore my photography portfolio and selected video work to see more of my visual approach.