Online business and e-commerce rely heavily on an abundance of product photos that display the product impeccably from all angles. In order to exhibit the best of the merchandise, seeking e-commerce image editing services are a required necessity for any such business house.
Product Photo Editing Tips of Photoshop can amend any issue of any product picture flawlessly. Just follow the listed guidelines closely and the results will surely satisfy you!
- Clipping path:
Clip Pathing or pen tooling is the extraction of the ‘product’ from the original image and its placement on another layer. This can be done through the “Select” menu – “Select and Mask” option, but the “Pen tool” is a greater choice. Granted, it requires practice and time, but it is definitely superior when it comes to product photo editing.
- Select the “Pen” tool.
- Left click on the mouse and you can draw anchor points, and then click somewhere else (makes another anchor point, connected to the first with a straight line) to hold a straight line. Or click the “hold” key and move the mouse and you can adjust the curve of the line created.
- If you make a mistake, you can select the “Selection tool” – “Direct Selection tool”. Through this, you can individually click the anchor points, move them around, select them, and adjust them.
- To pen tool the finer details – e.g. the corner of the ‘product’ – press the “Caps Lock” key on the keyboard and it will change the pen to a crosshair.
- When pen tooling, when you do a curve and you don’t want it to be automatically followed by another curve, hold the “Alt” key and click the anchor point – it will cut off the automatic curve, and the next one is going to be a straight path.
- While pathing, it is recommended to cut into the ‘product’ slightly instead of not going into the ‘product’ at all as that creates a halo effect around the ‘product’ that will stand out when the ‘product’ is later placed on a colored background.
- Do zoom in for pen tooling.
- Draw lines around the outer edges of the ‘product’. Then, select the “Pen Tool” again and draw lines around the inner edges.
- After patching is done, select the ‘product’ by right clicking the pen area and selecting “Make Selection”. The little marching ants will appear around the ‘product’, indicating that it has been selected.
- Then go to “Layers” panel, duplicate the original image, rasterize it, turn off the original “Background” layer and apply a mask. With this, the ‘product’ is extracted and put on another layer. Turn this layer off for now.
- Name this layer (for example, after the product) for ease.
(For convenience, this layer will be called the “Product” layer)
- Adding shadows
The absence of a shadow in a product image can make it unnatural, and the purpose of e-commerce photo editing is to make the product appear as neat and natural as possible.
- Create another duplicate of the “Background” layer by right clicking on the “Background” and selecting “Duplicate layer” and in its description box, name it, e.g. ‘Shadow’, and click “OK”.
- In the “Shadow” layer, select the “Eyedropper” tool, and an appropriate brush from the “Brush” tool, and erase everything except for the shadow of the ‘product’.
- Go to “Image menu – Adjustments – Levels”. A description box opens. In it, adjust the sliders so that the shadow remains but the background becomes a lot lighter. Doing so makes the ‘shadow’ stand out. Once done, hit “OK”.
- If you want to adjust the color, go to “Image – Adjustments – Hues/Saturation”. Adjust the slider of “Saturation” as needed.
- Background renewals
Product photo editing ensure that the focal point of the product picture is the product and not the other way around; the background should, instead, highlight the product.
- Now, with the “Shadow” layer selected and turned on, set it to “Multiply”.
- Then create a new layer underneath the “Shadow” layer and name it, e.g. ‘Background color’.
- With this new layer, the “Shadow” layer and the “Product” layer turned on, fill the new layer with a color:
- Select a color from the ‘product’ – select the “Color tool” on the left-side toolbar. A description box opens, named “Color Picker (Foreground Color)”. Choose the appropriate color, hit “OK”, and then select the “Paint Bucket Tool” (the fill tool) and fill in the color.
- Another option is to go to the “Adjustment Layer – Solid Color”. A description bar opens, named “Color Picker (Solid color)”. Choose your desired color and hit “OK”.
- Turn off the “Product” layer. And by turning off and on the “Shadow” layer, if you observe that the background color darkens because of the shadow, go to “Image – Adjustments – Layers”. Adjust the slider to get the right background color.
- Ghost mannequin neck joint technique
In order to display how clothes would look when worn, mannequins are used to take product photos. Having the mannequin in the picture, however, does not look pleasant. Therefore, use this product photo editing service to get rid of it, while also having an uninhibited view of the whole of the outfit.
- When the mannequin is removed through the pathing of the ‘front’ of the outfit, the back of the neck needs to be added. So, import the ‘back’ image and open it.
- Use the pen tool on it to extract the ‘back’ from the image.
- Then go to the “Edit” menu and select “Copy”, copying it.
- Select the “Product” layer which is the ‘front’ of the apparel and go to “Edit – Paste”, pasting the ‘back’ on this layer.
- Select the “Free Transform Tool” to move and resize it. Use the “lasso tool” to remove any unnecessary parts.
- Cleaning blemishes
Cleaning the ‘product’ is an essential component of e-commerce photo editing or else the blemishes or cuts would disrupt its aesthetic beauty.
- Clone stamp tool – select an appropriate brush, press “Alt” to sample an area and then left click on the blemished part of the product. Zoom in to do so.
- Regular healing brush – make sure the “Sample: Current and Below” is selected and use a large or small brush according to your requirement. Hold the “Alt” button and right mouse button, drag it to right to make it bigger and left to make it smaller. Hold the “Alt/Option” key, click to take a sample and remove blemishes.
- Color correction
Due to various lightings, the color of the product can be slightly altered in the picture. Thus, color correction is crucial in product photo editing or else there will be customer complaints of how they purchased one color and received another.
- Make a duplicate layer of the “Product” layer.
- Go to “Image – Adjustments – Exposure”. Increase the slider of “Exposure” up a bit as necessary.
- Go to “Image – Adjustments – Brightness/Contrast”. Increase or decrease the sliders of “Brightness” and “Contrast” as needed.
- Then go to “Image – Adjustments – Photo Filter”. Select the “Preview” option, and change the color a bit if needed, and adjust the slider of “Density” as required. It adds a shine.
- Some final touches
- Select the “Blur tool”. Keep “Strength” at “100%”. Select a small feathered brush and just once, use it to run around the edges of the ‘product’. It better blends the ‘product’ in the background.
- Select the “Background color” layer, sample the background color, pick a lighter tone of that, choose a big feathered brush and click on the middle of the ‘product’. Drop the “Opacity” as needed to make the color subtle. It adds a light on the ‘product’, and thereby getting rid of that blandness that comes with a renewed color background.
If you Like read more product Photo Editing Tips please comment. settling the ‘product’ on an apt background, adding its shadow, getting rid of blotches and discoloration etc. – upgrades the product image to give it an outstanding and professional look that will swiftly attract customers.
