Product Photos for a New Linen Brand: What to Ask Your Supplier For

Short answer: ask for a set of photo samples in your real colours and spec before bulk production begins. Shoot during the 30 to 45 days of production, and your listing is ready when the stock lands. Photograph washed product, because that is what customers will own.

What to ask the supplier for

Photo samples are paid like any sample, with the cost quoted upfront. They are worth far more than their price, because they save a month.

Supplier photos: what they are good for

Production photos show your goods, labels and cartons, and they are useful proof before you pay the balance. They are not listing photos. Catalogue pictures a supplier already has are of a similar product, not yours. Using them risks showing a colour, border or label you are not selling.

A shot list

Towels

• Stacked, folded, showing the edge and the pile height
• Hanging on a rail or hook, full length
• Close-up of the loops
• Close-up of the hem and label
• In use: over a shoulder, on a bath edge
• The full set together with sizes labelled
• Colour range in one frame

Bed linen

• A made bed, straight on and from a corner
• Close-up of the weave
• The pillowcase closure and the hem
• Folded set as it arrives
• A hand on the fabric, to show how it drapes

Both

• A scale reference: the towel against a person, the sheet on a named bed size
• The packaging

Make the photos honest

• Wash once before shooting. Towels fluff up and look their true selves. Sheets lose the factory finish.
• Shoot in daylight or daylight-balanced light. Then check the colour on screen against the real piece.
• Don't add towels to the stack that are not in the set.
• Don't retouch thickness. A towel that looks thicker in the picture than in the hand earns returns.

Returns for "not as pictured" are the costliest kind. The photo is a claim, like any other. See product claims you can prove.

Colour accuracy

Screens vary, so you cannot make every customer see the exact shade. You can name colours carefully, show them next to white, and show the bed and bath pieces together so the relationship is clear. See building one coordinated range.

The timeline

Samples we can send now

We hold bath towels at 500, 600 and 650 GSM, bathrobes in waffle, velour and terry, and bed linen at 200 and 300 thread count ready to send. Browse the catalogue for the range. For photo samples in your own spec, ask us for a sample quote.