Your photos appear in many places in the member app, and each place uses a slightly different shape, so every photo gets cropped a little. These few habits make sure the part you care about is the part your members see.
The short version
Shoot landscape, not portrait. This matters more than anything else in this guide. A tall photo loses more than half its height in most places in the app.
Your phone's normal setting is the right one. The default 4:3 photo setting works better across the app than widescreen. You do not need to crop anything before uploading.
Keep the subject in the middle. Roughly the middle two-thirds across and the middle four-fifths down. Anything close to an edge will be trimmed somewhere.
Keep words out of your photos. Text near an edge is the first thing to disappear, and it's unreadable at small sizes anyway. If you insist on adding text, keep in the designated safe areas mentioned below.
Upload big. At least 1500 pixels on the long side. Large photos are scaled down cleanly; small ones look soft on modern phones.
The most common mistake: a portrait photo. Phones shoot portrait by default when you hold them upright, so this happens a lot. The app shows your class photo in wide shapes, so a tall photo has most of its top and bottom removed — often including the person's head and feet. Turn your phone sideways.
Class & workshop photos
These work the hardest. They appear on the home screen, in the schedule, on the class page, and in booking confirmations — and each one uses a different shape.
Shape to upload: Landscape, 4:3, your phone's normal photo setting
Minimum size: 1500 × 1125 pixels
Safe area: Middle two-thirds across, middle four-fifths down
Avoid: Portrait photos, text of any kind, the subject near an edge
A good class photo has one clear subject, roughly centered, with space around them — a person mid-movement, or a wide shot of your room with the equipment centered. Busy photos with detail in the corners lose that detail.
Appointment photos
Same idea, and a slightly more forgiving safe area because appointments have one less shape to fit.
Shape to upload: Landscape, 4:3
Minimum size: 1500 × 1125 pixels
Safe area: Middle three-quarters across, middle four-fifths down
Appointments also appear as a small square thumbnail in your schedule, so a photo that reads clearly when very small is worth choosing.
Shop item photos
Products appear as a small square in your shop list and as a wider image on the product page.
Shape to upload: Landscape, 4:3 — this works better than square here
Minimum size: 1500 × 1125 pixels
Safe area: Middle three-quarters across, full height is safe
If you shoot products on a white background, leave generous space to the left and right of the item. A square photo of a tall product — a bottle, or a mat rolled upright — will have its top and bottom trimmed on the product page.
Gift card images
Gift cards are the one place where a square photo is the better choice.
Shape to upload: Square
Minimum size: 800 × 800 pixels
Safe area: Middle 60% across, full height is safe
One step of the gift card flow shows the image as a tall narrow strip, which is why the safe area here is a centered column rather than a box.
Teacher photos
Shape to upload: Square, face centered
Minimum size: 600 × 600 pixels
Best results: Head and shoulders, filling the frame. A full-body shot is unrecognizable at the sizes used in the app
Before you upload: a quick check
The photo is landscape, not portrait. (Gift cards, logos, and teacher photos are square.)
The subject sits comfortably in the middle, not near an edge
There is no text in the image
It is at least 1500 pixels on the long side
You have opened the app and looked at it on the home screen and in the schedule
That last one matters. The quickest way to be sure a photo works is to look at it. If something is cropped awkwardly, moving the subject toward the center and re-uploading almost always fixes it.