Packshot vs lifestyle: which images you need

By James Jones, founder of Granary Digital · Updated 5 November 2026

A packshot shows the product on its own, and a lifestyle image shows it in use or in a setting. Most brands need both, but not in equal amounts, and not for the same places.

What each type of image does

A packshot is for the place where a buyer decides whether the product is what they want. That is usually a product listing, a product page, a catalogue or a price comparison feed. The background is plain, the product is sized and lit the same way across the range, and nothing competes with the item.

A lifestyle image is for the place where someone first notices the product. That is social media, adverts, email headers, website banners and story-led pages. The product sits in a scene: on a kitchen counter, in a hand, on a desk. The scene should support the product, not take over from it.

Many listings and marketplaces ask for a plain background on the main image, and some ask for other specifications too. Check each platform's own guidance before you shoot, and read our Amazon and e-commerce image specs page for the detail.

Which images you need

1. List every place the pictures will appear, and the shape each one needs: square, landscape or vertical.
2. Mark which places need a plain background and which need a setting. Listings and catalogues are usually packshots. Social and adverts are usually lifestyle.
3. Count the shots for each product. A typical packshot set is the front, the back, one or two three-quarter angles, a detail and a scale shot. A lifestyle set is a handful of scenes, chosen for the places the pictures will run.
4. Pick one lifestyle image to lead each campaign, and one packshot to act as the master for every listing.
5. Brief the stylist and the retoucher with the same product, the same colour reference and the list of places each image is for.

A worked example

An invented example: a kettle brand launches one kettle in three colours. The brief lists three product pages, one listing feed, a social campaign with vertical and square crops, and an email header.

The packshot set is nine images: three colours, each shot from the front, a three-quarter angle and a detail of the spout. Each colour is lit the same way, so the three look like one range. The lifestyle set is three scenes: the kettle on a kitchen counter, a hand pouring, and the kettle beside a mug on a wooden table. Each lifestyle scene is shot in the vertical and square crops the social posts need, so nobody has to crop a landscape frame later.

Common mistakes

• Shooting lifestyle first and hoping to get a plain background out of it later. The edge, the shadow and the lighting usually give the game away.
• Lighting each colourway differently, so the three look like three products.
• Forgetting the crops until the images arrive, then finding the most important part of the product cut off in the vertical version.
• Letting the setting overpower the product, so the buyer cannot see what they are paying for.
• Retouching the product into something it is not. Buyers notice, and returns follow.

Where to shoot

Packshots need a clean, even surface and a background that curves out of sight. An infinity cove is built for this. Read more on product photography on an infinity cove, or on cove or tabletop product photography if you are deciding between the two. For the prep work on the day, see preparing products for a studio shoot.

Our White Space is an infinity cove, 5.3 by 7.1 metres, and a full day there is £395 +VAT. See the studio hire page for what is included with a booking.

For how the wider image set fits together, read commercial, corporate and advertising photography explained.

Related guides

• Amazon and e-commerce image specs
• Product photography on an infinity cove
• Food photography in a studio: styling, light, hero shots
• Commercial, corporate and advertising photography explained
• All guides and tools

The picture at the top of this page is an illustration, not a photograph of a client or a real job.