Photography

Photography is where a shoot becomes a live storefront image. You name your files by SKU, point ThreadCloud at the folder, and it uploads each photo to Shopify, names it for SEO, writes alt text, and attaches it to the right product. Two more cards on the same page tell you how much of the storefront still has no image and which exact products to shoot next.

What you’ll need

• A folder of finished shots, each named by the product’s SKU (see below)
• The products already pushed to Shopify (Photography matches a file to a product by SKU)
• Files as JPEG or PNG — HEIC/HEIF straight off an iPhone won’t upload

Name the files by SKU

ThreadCloud finds the right product from the filename. Name each shot SKU_1.jpg, SKU_2.jpg, SKU_3.jpg, and so on:

• The number after the underscore is the shot order.
• The lowest number is the hero — Shopify features the first image attached to a product, so _1 becomes the main storefront photo.
• The extension can be .jpg, .jpeg, or .png.

The photography flow

1. Open Photography from the sidebar.
2. Choose shoot folder — the whole folder of SKU-named images.
3. Sync to Shopify — files upload one at a time, hero first.
4. Watch the status chips — Pushed / Skipped / No match / Failed.
5. Scan storefront — see the coverage % and what’s still missing.
6. Work the shoot list — drill into the exact products with no photo.

Stage 1 — Sync a shoot folder

In the Sync photos card, click Choose shoot folder and pick the folder. ThreadCloud reads the image files only (it ignores anything that isn’t an image) and shows you the count it’s about to sync.

Click Sync to Shopify. Files go up one at a time, sorted so each product’s hero lands first. A Stop button halts the run mid-folder if you need it — anything already synced stays synced.

For each file, ThreadCloud:

1. Resolves the SKU in the filename to a Shopify product.
2. Cleans the image — rotates by EXIF, caps the long edge, strips camera metadata, converts to JPEG.
3. Classifies the shot (front, back, side, detail, flat lay, on model) with a quick vision call.
4. Builds an SEO filename (brand-title-colour-NN.jpg) and alt text from the product’s brand, title, and colour plus that shot type.
5. Uploads the bytes to Shopify’s own CDN and attaches the image to the product.

You’ll see a status chip per file:

• PUSHED — attached to the product
• SKIPPED — already synced before (safe to re-run a folder)
• NO MATCH — no Shopify product for that SKU yet
• FAILED — the file couldn’t be read (e.g. HEIC)

The ambient bar reads Hanging the shoot while it runs and Photos hung when it’s done.

Stage 2 — Scan storefront coverage

The Storefront photo coverage card answers one question: how much of what’s for sale has a picture?

Click Scan storefront (or Re-scan storefront). ThreadCloud reads your active, in-stock Shopify products and counts how many carry a customer-facing image, then shows the headline: a big percentage plus “X of Y in-stock products have an image · N still to shoot.”

A few things it does on purpose:

• Draft, archived, and zero-inventory products are excluded — the list is what’s actually for sale, not noise.
• The scan is cached. If you re-scan too soon it keeps the last good number and shows a soft warning rather than wiping it.

Stage 3 — Work the shoot list

Below coverage, the Shoot list card turns the gap into a to-do list: brands (vendors) that are missing photos, most-needed first.

• Click a brand name to open that vendor’s products in Shopify admin.
• Click the row to expand it to the exact products with no image — title, colour, SKU, season, first-receive date, and price — each linking straight to the product in Shopify admin.

Shoot those, re-sync the folder, and re-scan. The percentage climbs and the products drop off the list.

Studio access (owner only)

If you shoot through Straight Goods Studio instead of syncing a folder by hand, the Owner connects the two in the Connect to Straight Goods Studio card:

1. Click Grant access — ThreadCloud mints a per-store token, scoped to pushing product images only.
2. Copy the token now — it’s shown once. Paste it into the Studio.
3. Rotate token re-mints it (and kills the old one); Revoke turns access off.

From then on the Studio pushes finished shots straight to Shopify through the same pipeline as the folder sync — same SKU matching, same SEO and alt text.

Common mistakes

Next steps

• Push to Shopify — get products live before you shoot them
• Receiving — a product shows in coverage once it’s in stock
• Enrich — titles, colours, and brand that become the SEO filename and alt text