Photo Retouching and its Role in Enhancing Jewelry Images

by Graham Smith Business Development Manager

The history of photography takes you back to the early 1800s, where the first photographic process was introduced to the public by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. The process was named daguerreotype and became a commercial success after its invention. It was a great stride made towards the improvement of photography and was better than the time-consuming and uncertain pinhole camera or camera obscura. However, it did have some limitations, like it was heavy, fragile, non-flexible, but succeeded in offering detailed, sharp, and precise pictures. Gradually, different technologies like photo retouching began to emerge, which completely changed the way the photographs looked. The time required to develop the snaps significantly reduced from weeks to hours and then, from minutes to seconds. Moreover, there was no need to use word of mouth to share or store delightful memories.

Photography became a popular tool of interaction, especially for the advertising and retail domain. It helped the respective industries to make their products accessible for the people. It attracted the attention of potential clients and lured them to make a purchase or investment. There was no time limitation since it can stay open for a long time, even when you have already left the space. The photos used for the products conveyed the best story to the audience and became as important as the product descriptions mentioned in the text form. Apart from this, it also keeps you connected with the priceless moments of your life. For example, let’s consider you are purchasing a ring for your wedding. In that case, photography will let you hold the emotions and relive it again when you look at it in the future.

The photography field always experiences steady developments and inventions for improving the quality of pictures. Every once in a while, you can witness the launch of new equipment or image editing software. However, this does not mean that you have to adopt every new technology that was introduced in the industry. It is not at all feasible since the more advanced the technology is, the more costly it will become. Thankfully, the industry would not introduce major innovations in a shorter period, so you will still have some time before moving on with the new trend. Apart from that, it is surely an advantage that innovations usually do not incorporate new camera equipment. Even though there are a lot of retailers that benefit because of this, in this article, we are going to talk about how post-production techniques like photo retouching support the jewelry companies to improve their business. There’s a lot more to discuss in this case other than image quality enhancement.

What is Photo Retouching?

Photo retouching is the process of editing images for further enhancing or restoring its quality. It usually involves a variety of techniques such as color adjustment, maintaining white balance, increasing sharpness, and more. People mostly confuse it with creative retouching; however, both are two different processes. The process of creative retouching usually involves manipulating the bodies or objects present in the pictures. However, in photo retouching, you have to think about improving the overall look of the photographs.

Ever since eCommerce business has become a trending topic, many online marketplaces began to emerge. As a result, many photo editing companies also started to surface online that helped those companies to make their product image look appealing and professional. This made product photo retouching common among the retailers as it helped their products to sell.

How Can Photo Retouching Improve Your Jewelry Images?

Retouching of jewelry images is a crucial step that every online business should implement. With well-retouched images, it is possible to bring out the most appealing look of a piece of jewelry. It can effectively portray a unique story that will please the customers within a couple of seconds just with the help of visuals. Be it an actual diamond or just an artificial jewelry set, it can completely transform the object and make it look stunning.

1. Clipping images to a white background

The most important rule in eCommerce photo editing is to ensure that the main subject is in focus. For ensuring it, other things surrounding the subject can be removed. Another important thing that you need to pay attention to is the background. By appropriately editing the background and maintaining its color accuracy and consistency, you can help in reducing the time of the post-production processes. Apart from that, it can help in improving sales by converting a casual browser into a buyer.

People who are planning to start their online jewelry business can directly opt for white background images by reaching out to a photo editing company. It can save their time and energy for conducting or supervising the jewelry photoshoot. Besides, you can also receive expert assistance from online photo retouchers who are capable of instantly making the jewelry look professional, sophisticated, and presentable. If not, you can also find many Photoshop tutorials to carry out the clipping path process on your own. These tutorials will help you learn the basic steps for retouching the product images.

2. Retouching it to achieve studio quality

A lot of techniques are implemented in jewelry photo retouching services to enhance the appeal of the jewelry pictures. Some of them are adjustment of lighting, contrasts, colors, etc. Overall, every technique used here will successfully enhance the visual presentation to make it look like studio quality jewelry so that more customers are lured to your website and finally click on the checkout button.

3. Cropping, aligning, and straightening

If your jewelry image is not having the correct dimensions and looks crooked, then there is a 100% chance that it won’t look appealing to your customers. The reason behind this can be a camera that went off-centered while photographing the subject. You might think that it is not a great deal, but it will surely look unusual to your customers even if they cannot find the exact reason behind the unusualness. Who knows, you might even have to compensate the tilt by losing your customers. So, to avoid that, make sure you align, crop, and straighten it to provide a seamless shopping experience for them. Most of the time, the jewelers start with the aim of capturing straight pictures. However, in case it does not happen, then do not hesitate to hire a professional jewelry image retoucher to fix it in the best way possible.

4. Removing dust, scratches, or blemishes

High-resolution photography can showcase every detail of the jewelry along with the tiniest blemishes, dust, scratches, or even the fingerprints. That is why it is advisable to use a cloth piece or wear gloves while photographing the jewelry. However, if you somehow forget to take this step, then product photo editing can become your savior. Another thing you can do before carrying out the photoshoots is to clean the jewelry so that more professional quality images can be achieved.

Dirty or untidy jewelry will give the impression of a low-quality product to your customers. It will also question your professionalism and shows up your negligence in paying importance to their needs. That is why removing dust, scratch, or blemish is a crucial step when it comes to building trust between you and the consumers. So, make sure any such imperfection is removed before posting your pictures online.

5. Adding shine to the jewelries

By adding adequate shine and making the jewelry sparkle, you can add a bit of drama to the pictures. On the other hand, dull-looking imagery will kill their interest and force them to leave your site. The shine and sparkle in the jewelry photos are usually achieved through the photo retouching process by adjusting the lighting. Mainly, direct lighting is mixed with diffused lighting to create a sparkling effect while showcasing its bright colors. Sometimes, halogen lights and LEDs are also used to achieve the required effect.

A single photo can express more than a thousand words. It has the power to visually convince your customers that investing in your product won’t be a waste of their money. We always say that a single photo is worth a thousand sales. Product photo retouching can act as a great substitute when you are unable to touch. It is especially true when it comes to online jewelry shopping. So, every jewelry business needs to incorporate it for showcasing their pictures to the potential customers. However, make sure that your customers always get a first-class visual presentation so that you can see a consistent increase in the sales. eBay also suggested through a recent survey that sellers must present exceptional jewelry product images for convincing buyers to make a purchase. So, ensure that the image has high clarity and adheres strictly to the international standards. In addition to this, it should be expressive enough to answer every customer queries related to the product.