Taking pictures of jewelry isn’t as simple as it looks until you try it yourself. You see a nice ring in person and think that the picture of it will look great after uploading it to your online store.
However, once you do this, it can be very disappointing when the images look flat and uninteresting, as if all the light is gone, along with all of the gloss and brilliance. Aside from that, if you already have these bad experiences within your online store, you certainly aren’t alone.
There’s a reason for the importance of jewelry photo retouching in the world of eCommerce. When customers purchase your products online, they never touch, feel or try on the item, all they can do is look at a picture from your web page.
Using professional image editing tools and techniques will not only make your jewelry images look great; they will also help build customer trust, highlight your craftsmanship, and move your visitors closer to clicking on the “buy now” button for a product. In this blog post, I’d like to show you the best, most effective ways of retouching jewelry photographs based on both professional and practical experiences, without much (if any) fluff and no overly technical jargon included.
Case Study- Jewelry Retouching for American ecommerce Company
Essential Pre-Editing Setup for Jewelry Photography
Before you create your retouching magic, you need to make sure you have the proper groundwork. While good editing will help enhance images, it cannot fix a bad shot photo entirely.
From my experience, the smoother your pre-editing setup is, the better and more natural and professional-looking the final image will be.
Some key things to focus on before editing:
- Correct Light Source: Soft, diffused lighting will eliminate the hard reflections from metals and gemstones.
- Clean Jewelry: Dust, fingerprints and scratches will stand out like a sore thumb when viewed in high resolution images.
- Use a neutral background: Using a simple background will make your editing time faster, and also keep the focus on the jewelry.
- Use high resolution images: The more detail you have, the better you can control your retouching.
- Use consistent angles: Consistency is a must for an ecommerce catalog or collection.
Getting these basics correct will save you time in retouching and, most importantly, it will keep the final images from appearing too heavily retouched or unnatural.
Also read- Best lighting setup for Jewelry Photography
Clipping Path & Background Removal: Clean and Consistent Images
One of the most popular and critical techniques used in jewelry retouching is using clipping paths and removing the background. Ecommerce websites depend on the ability to display clear images that do not distract from the product, and jewelry is no different.
Why this is important:
- It will help separate the jewelry piece from an extremely complex graduated or uneven background.
- It gives the marketplace a clean white or transparent background.
- It creates uniformity throughout the entire site with respect to similar product listings.
- The end result will be that all of the jewelry pieces will look sharper and more expensive.
For jewelry pieces that have sharp edges the clipping path method works perfectly for those designs. However, for jewelry pieces with very detailed and small designs, such as complex designs, the background removal procedure is helpful for preserving the appearance of delicate edges when removing an overall background and maintaining the realism of that piece of jewelry.
Color Correction, Lighting & Reflection Adjustments
This is where jewelry photo editing truly shines. Jewelry is all about maintaining accurate colors and representational brilliance. Slightly greenish gold or gemstones that look different to how they do in person may seem insignificant to customers, but they’ll still be able to tell there’s something wrong with the image.
Correct color corrections will ensure that the product a customer looks at online resembles the product that they receive. In addition to aiding customers in selecting a piece that they like, adjustments to lighting and reflections will create the appearance of increased sparkle without producing an artificial look.
The key is to maintain subtlety. The intent is not to enhance the sparkle but instead to expose the beauty that exists naturally. Jewelry products can make reflections very challenging to replicate correctly. The geometric structure of metals creates a mirror effect, which means that metals are capable of reflecting everything surrounding them, including the camera, lights, and photographer.
Enhancing Details: Shadows, Sparkle & Final Touches
After completing the majority of your corrections, you are ready for the fine-tuning phase. This is where the difference between average and premium jewelry images can be made.
The following enhancements can be made to finish your product images:
- Adding realistic shadows: Provides a sense of grounding for the jewelry and gives it depth.
- Adding sparkle enhancement: Enhances the appearance of gemstones without making them appear artificial.
- Sharpening details: Enhances the level of fine craftsmanship and detail in engravings.
- Maintaining consistency: Provides continuity and cohesiveness to a product image collection.
Individually these enhancements provide little benefit, but collectively they offer an enormous amount of improvement to the professionalism and trustworthiness of your store.
Conclusion — Boosting Sales with Professional Jewelry Retouching
Jewelry photo retouching is about more than just improving the image; it is about telling a story that can sell. Every sparkle, shadow and reflection shows customers what kind of quality you have established with your product.
At Visuals Clipping, we focus on ecommerce jewelry retouching. This includes everything from the clipping path/ background removal , to colour correction/reflection cleanup/fine detail enhancement, all done in an ecommerce minded way so your jewelry will appear luxurious, realistic, and ready for an online platform.
Great visuals are not necessarily an advantage, but are essential in today’s crowded traditional market place. The right jewelry photo retouching company will make your product photos look great and provide you with trust and conversion rates while at the same time, be the added value to your overall sales process.
FAQ
Q1. What makes jewelry more difficult to retouch than other items?
Ans: Jewelry is more difficult to retouch than other types of goods, because of the extreme amount of reflection, the tiny details of the product, and the level of color accuracy that must be maintained.
Q2. Can scratches and dust on jewelry be removed using digital technology?
Ans: Yes, professional retouching can be an effective way to correct or remove imperfections; without causing damage to the texture of the image.
Q3. Is over-retouching of jewelry images serious?
Ans: Yes, over-retouching makes the jewelry appear less real, and reduces the amount of trust that consumers have.
Q4. Is it necessary for all e-commerce sites to have a white background?
Ans: Most e-commerce sites prefer a white background; however, most brand-owned stores can have creative backgrounds.
