iPhone & HEIC Product Photography: From Phone Camera to Listing Images and Ad Creatives

What HEIC is and why marketplaces want JPEG or PNG

HEIC is a HEIF image compressed with HEVC (H.265), the same codec iPhones use for video. Apple made it the camera default with iOS 11. You can check or change it in Settings > Camera > Formats: High Efficiency saves HEIC, and Most Compatible saves JPEG.

Marketplaces publish the formats they accept, and those lists centre on JPEG and PNG. Amazon's image requirements page lists JPEG, TIFF, PNG and GIF. Check the current page for each marketplace you sell on, because a file in a format it does not list can be refused at upload.

Colour is the second issue. iPhones capture in the Display P3 colour space, which is wider than the sRGB most web pages assume. A converter that drops the colour profile without converting the colours can leave reds, golds and saturated packaging looking dull or shifted. Convert with a tool that maps the colours to sRGB, then compare the result with the product in your hand.

How Picmato handles HEIC uploads

You can upload HEIC straight from an iPhone. Picmato takes up to 12 photos per product in JPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC and converts HEIC files on its servers when they arrive, so you do not need a converter first. You can also import a listing from its URL instead of uploading photos.

Analysis then reads the photos and the listing, including the text printed on the pack, before anything is generated. New images are generated at 1K, 2K or 4K, depending on your plan. Generation is not a check against any marketplace's rules, so check each finished image against the rules of the marketplace you upload it to.

A phone studio: lighting, framing and stability

You do not need a camera body to get usable base photos. The iPhone 14 Pro and every model from the iPhone 15 on have a 48MP main camera. What decides the result is the light, the lens you pick and a steady phone.

1. Pick a lens, not a pinch. Tap the 1x or 2x button rather than pinching to zoom. On 48MP models, 2x is a crop from the centre of the main sensor and still gives a 12MP photo, while pinching to an in-between value enlarges pixels. For small items such as cosmetics, jewellery and supplement packs, 2x from a little further back keeps straight edges straight, where 1x up close bends them outward.

2. Soft side light. Put the table beside a large window, with the window to one side of the product. Hang a sheer white curtain or tracing paper over the glass to soften direct sun, and stand a sheet of white foam board on the other side to bounce light into the shadows. After dark, two daylight-balanced LED panels (about 5500K) at 45 degrees to the product do the same job.

3. Lock focus and exposure. Tap and hold on the product until AE/AF LOCK appears, then drag the sun icon down a little. Phones tend to brighten a scene, which can blow out glossy highlights and white packaging text; a slightly darker photo keeps that detail.

4. Keep the phone still. A tabletop tripod with a phone clamp and the 3-second self-timer remove the shake that tapping the shutter causes.

From your phone photos to a planned listing set

Picmato plans a 9-image set for each product: the main image, plus eight images the planner names for that product from its listing, your photos and the review themes it holds for it. You choose which planned images to generate and pay credits per image. Nine is the size of the plan, not a promise of nine finished images: an image the planner could not fill is left out, and the picker tells you how many.

The plan works from what your photos and listing show, so give it more than one snapshot. Shoot the front, an angle or two, a close-up of the label and ingredient panel, and the pack contents laid out. Those photos are the evidence the planned images draw on.

If you have saved a brand character, it goes into every image your set plans with a person. Nothing checks the person in a finished image, so review those images before you use them.

Social ad creatives from the same photos

On Starter plans and up, Picmato makes social creatives in four aspect ratios: 1:1, 4:5, 16:9 and 9:16. Each format is a separate run, so make the ones you will actually place:

• 1:1 (commonly uploaded at 1080 × 1080 px): feed posts and carousel cards.

• 4:5 (1080 × 1350 px): portrait feed placements on Instagram and Facebook, which take more of a phone screen than a square.

• 9:16 (1080 × 1920 px): Stories, Reels and other full-screen vertical placements.

• 16:9 (1920 × 1080 px): landscape placements such as YouTube and desktop.

Recommended sizes and safe zones change, so check each platform's current specs before you launch. Meta keeps its own in the Meta Ads Guide.

Converting HEIC yourself

If you need JPEG or PNG files outside Picmato, for a marketplace upload or for someone else to edit, convert them with the colour handled properly:

• Mac: select the files in Finder, right-click and choose Quick Actions > Convert Image. Pick JPEG or PNG and Actual Size so nothing is downscaled.

• Windows: install HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store so Windows can open HEIC files. Depending on your setup, the HEVC Video Extensions may also be needed to decode them.

• iPhone: to stop making HEIC files at all, set Settings > Camera > Formats to Most Compatible, and the camera saves JPEG instead.

• Keep full resolution. Do not shrink a photo before you upload it; fine label text and clean edges are what analysis needs to read.

• Check the finished main image. AI renderers do not guarantee an exact RGB value, so check an Amazon main image with a colour picker before you upload it.