Easy Steps to Edit Product Images in Minutes

You’ve created or purchased your products, set up a website, claimed your social media profile and now it’s time to sell. But without product photography, there’s no way to share your collection with the world.

But photographing products means you need to learn how to edit product images too. Things like removing backgrounds (and replacing them), improving lighting, adding shadows, and more can feel overwhelming for a small business owner who already has a long to-do list.

Fortunately, there are AI product photography tools you can use to speed up the process and save money that you’d otherwise spend on photography and image editing services.

Not sure which tools to start with? You’ve come to the right place. In this article, you’ll learn how to edit product images with a range of free and low-cost AI photo editing tools created by PhotoCut.

Let’s dive in.

How to edit product images for your small business in 7 quick steps

Let’s say you have a handmade ceramics business. You’ll need high-quality images to showcase your products on your website, social media, and email campaigns, but you also need to stay within budget.

PhotoCut is an essential tool,” says Ane Howard, founder of Faba Collection. “I don’t have a photography budget to afford $10,000 per month, plus the models—that’s even on the low end of minimum costs. PhotoCut is much more affordable, plus it gives my purses a high-end luxury look by elevating my photography.

Whether you want to edit product images one by one or want to save time editing up to 50 images at a time with PhotoCut’s batch editing feature, follow these steps to create beautiful, realistic product pictures that can help boost customer engagement and sales.

1. Take product photos

First things first, you need to take photos of your products. But with AI product photography tools like PhotoCut, you don’t need to agonize over setting up the perfect background or lighting, all you require is your smartphone. Then upload your product pictures and use a range of AI photo editing tools to enhance them. In the next few steps, you’ll learn everything you can do to create high-quality, realistic product images in just a few seconds.

Here’s the photo I started with:

2. Remove unwanted objects from photos

In some cases, you may want to remove certain objects while you’re editing product images. If so, I recommend doing this step first, using the Magic Retouch tool. Here’s how it works:

1. Open the PhotoCut app (Google, Apple, or web)
2. Select Retouch
3. Choose a product photo from your library
4. Rub your finger over the object you’d like to remove
5. Click Next
6. Click the Export button
7. Save the edited image to your device

Now that you’ve removed unwanted objects, you can upload the new product photo and continue editing things like the background, lighting, and shadows.

3. Remove the background and choose a new one

Background distractions make it harder for customers to focus on the products you’re selling, but figuring out how to erase the background and replace it with a new, realistic one in Photoshop or Figma can be time-consuming. That’s why we created the Instant Backgrounds AI tool to save you time and frustration. Use this tool to create minimalist or fun backgrounds that are suitable for small business promotions across social media or product photos for your website.

Here’s how it works:

1. Open the PhotoCut app
2. Press the Start from Photo button
3. Select an image from your library (for this example, let’s use the one we removed an object from)
4. Watch the background disappear
5. On the next screen, click Instant Backgrounds
6. Choose from existing templates or click the pencil tool (top right) to type in a prompt for a custom AI-generated scene
7. Click Generate 4 more until you find the background you like

Different template themes are great for lifestyle shots,” says Ian Nethercot, happy PhotoCut user and founder of Switchup Signs. “They bring my products to life so customers can visualize them in their space, creating an emotional connection.

4. Adjust the lighting and add shadows

After you select a new background (either a template or a custom AI-generated one), you can adjust things like lighting, shadows, brightness, warmth, and so on. To do this, follow these steps:

• Click the two lines next to Product (right side)
• Select Light On (this improves the lighting of the products, but doesn’t alter the rest of the image)
• Scroll down to choose other editing features like adding a shadow and adjusting the brightness or warmth of the photo

PRO TIP: For studio-style images with a solid background, you can use the Backdrop templates to generate backgrounds that already have shadows, like this:

5. Add text to product images

Not all photos require text, but if you want to build brand awareness on social media by adding your company name to product photos or adding text to your image to promote a giveaway or sale on Instagram, here’s how it works:

• Click the Text button to choose from a range of PhotoCut fonts and styles
• Or click the Font button to choose your font
• Click on Look to resize the text
• When you’re on the Look screen, scroll down to adjust the color, alignment, shadow, outline, and position of the text (move to front or back)

At this point, you can either export the photo or continue to the image resizing step (below).

PRO TIP: Turn your product photos into sales promotions with PhotoCut’s Sales templates.

6. Resize product photos

Once you’re pleased with your background, lighting, and other product image edits, you can resize the product photo for your website, email campaigns, or social media. Here’s how:

• Click the Resize button
• Select from templates like square, landscape, and portrait
• Or choose custom settings
• You can also adjust the photo to fit the new image size. For example, I chose the Landscape option, which cut off the top of the photo. drag the product photo back into the new layout so the promotional text was still visible.

PRO TIP: From the mobile app (Google or Apple), use one of PhotoCut’s size templates to resize your product photos for Instagram, Facebook, Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, and more marketplaces.