Product photos travel further than most files. The same image may be uploaded to a marketplace, sent to a client, added to a catalogue and reused in a social post. The picture can be ready while the file still carries a camera model, location, author note or editing-software field from the workflow that produced it.
Keep a source copy
Save the original in your working archive. It may be useful later if you need to make a different crop, prove when a photograph was created or meet a client’s request for the source file. Cleaning should happen to the copy you plan to publish, not to the only copy you have.
Prepare a listing copy
Add the copy to whyaiai and review the markers it finds. The cleaner creates a fresh export without common EXIF, GPS, XMP, IPTC and comment fields. Read the before-and-after report, then download the file for the listing. Clean product photos before uploading them in your browser.
Separate privacy from marketplace requirements
Metadata cleaning does not resize the picture unless you choose a resize setting, and it does not change a product’s visible colour or composition by itself. Marketplaces may still require a particular format, longest edge, file size or colour profile. Check those requirements in the exported copy before you publish.
Use the same habit for every channel
When one product image is going to several destinations, make one clean master for sharing and keep the original separate. That gives you a consistent starting point without relying on a marketplace to re-encode the file in a way you cannot inspect. The result is a calmer handoff for you and a cleaner file for the next person who receives it.