How to photograph clothes for Depop, and what actually sells there

What Depop actually requires

Depop only accepts a 1:1 square crop. If you upload a rectangular photo, the app crops it to a square automatically, and it does not ask you first which part to keep. Shoot square from the start, or frame your garment with enough margin that a centre crop does not clip a sleeve or a hem.

A listing can carry up to four photos and one short video. Depop recommends 1080 by 1080 pixels for the sharpest result across both the feed and the item page, and 640 by 640 pixels is the minimum it will accept. JPEG and PNG both work.

The look that actually sells on Depop

Depop is not eBay or Etsy. Buyers there are mostly browsing resale and vintage on their phone, and a photo that looks like a studio catalogue shot reads as slightly off, the way a stock photo does on a dating profile. A garment shot on a hanger against a bedroom door, or worn and photographed in a mirror, tends to outperform a seamless white backdrop for exactly that reason: it looks like it came from a real closet, because it did.

Depop's own photo team gives the same advice it gives to any seller: use both styles rather than picking one. A flat lay or hanger shot shows the true silhouette with nothing in the way, and a worn shot answers the fit question a flat lay cannot. If you model it yourself, add a line in the description about how the piece fits your usual size, since that one sentence answers the question most buyers message to ask before they buy. Skip heavy filters too. A filtered photo can shift the actual color of the garment enough that what arrives looks like a different item, which is a fast way to earn a return.

A shoot that takes ten minutes

1. 1Find flat, indirect lightStand near a window on an overcast day, or a day with the sun not hitting the glass directly. Direct sun through a window creates a hard shadow that a phone camera struggles to expose for.
2. 2Shoot worn or on a hangerWorn shots convert better because they answer the fit question, but a hanger shot is faster and still fine for basics. Pick whichever you can do in the light you have.
3. 3Get the two close upsFabric texture, then the label. Both in focus, both lit the same as the main shot.
4. 4Check the square crop before postingDepop's editor shows you the crop live. Nudge the framing until nothing important sits at the edge.

How Depop's rules differ from other marketplaces

Depop is noticeably more relaxed about background than eBay or Amazon, both of which push sellers toward a plain white or neutral backdrop. That is one of the reasons the real-room look works here when it would look out of place elsewhere. The shot list changes by platform too: Grailed rewards close, detailed shots that prove a resale item's condition, and Mercari sits closer to eBay's more formal expectations. If you are listing the same garment across more than one of these, shoot for the strictest platform first and you will usually have what the more relaxed ones want too. A phone camera is plenty for all of them; shooting clothes with just your phone covers the settings worth checking before you start.

Depop in 2026

Depop is no longer part of Etsy. eBay announced a deal to acquire it in February 2026 and completed the purchase on July 30, 2026, after UK regulatory clearance. eBay has said Depop keeps its own app, brand and culture, so the listing flow above is unchanged by the sale. At the time of the announcement, Depop reported roughly 7 million active buyers and more than 3 million active sellers, with close to a billion dollars in gross merchandise sales over the prior year.

Where RorlAI fits

RorlAI's apparel studio can put your garment on an AI model or turn a flat lay into a clean on-body shot without a mirror selfie, which helps for the worn photo specifically when you cannot get a friend to model it. It will not manufacture the label close up or the fabric texture shot. Those need to be real, because Depop buyers are checking for exactly that kind of proof before they buy secondhand. A free Depop photo checklist covers the shot list in one page if you want it without the rest of this article.