Picture Perfect: The Art of Photo Retouching
Ultimately, the softer, tastier, flashier and more attractive your products look to shoppers, the more confident they’ll feel about purchasing from you. But, this sometimes takes more than good photography. While new more sophisticated cameras are being released every day, each one promising bigger and better features, cameras have their limitations. No matter how hard you try, the colors and tones you wish to capture don’t always materialize. But nothing is more important to your ad or packaging design or web page, than your product imagery. That’s where photo retouching comes in.
Photo retouching is the technique of editing digital or printed photos and includes restoration and enhancement of photographs. How does it help? What are its benefits? How can it be used? Let’s take a look.
The art of photo retouching has the ability to highlight different details within an image or make up for the limitations of a specific kind of camera. It can make your product pop off the page or packaging. As such, the light exposure, contrasts or color tones can be corrected or played with thanks to photograph retouching. It is important to note though that photo retouching is not simply equitable to Photoshop. Although Photoshop is one of the most common way photo retouching is performed, photo retouching can also be performed with different chemical agents and physical changes made to film before they are printed.
Color Splash
Maybe your product needs more pizzazz, or didn’t photograph the right color, or comes in many colors that don’t exist yet. Photo retouching enables you to solve all of these problems. You can enhance your product imagery by adding a strategic glow or color highlight or shadow. You can fix the color to match perfectly with the real thing. And, you can take a prototype photo of one product in black, for example, and change it to any color in the rainbow. This also saves time and money, since you only had to create one prototype.
Cleanup
Photo retouching allows you to clean up the photo by eliminating distracting elements in the foreground or background. You can also clean up the item itself if there are any product flaws showing or distracting shadows. By removing the clutter, your customer can focus on what’s important about the picture. A retouched photo adds professionalism and a polished, finished look to your advertising and packaging.
Background Magic
Sometimes you cannot control the surroundings of a photo shoot. But photo retouching enables you to create whole new world. You can add a tropical background to your suntan lotion. Or place your factory product in a serene meadow. Or place your product in a display case that doesn’t exist yet. Your photo can look big budget, even though it was taken on a table top.
Branding
While any product can look great in a photo, keep in mind that your images should match the overall aesthetic of your packaging and marketing materials, as well as your company’s image. The photo should be tailor fitted to suit your brand. Photo retouching can ensure that from photo to photo, all of your images look like they were shot the same way, and have an immediate connection to each other.
Whether selling products or services, attractive design and complimentary copy writing will help, but ultimately the image you choose creates viewer interest, and hopefully, a desire to purchase the product. The photograph cannot just look great; it also needs to appeal to your target audience. You need to maintain a balance between creativity and professionalism while still producing a flawless photograph of the product.
Despite the utmost care taken in shooting these products, photo retouching is almost always needed. Getting rid of the extra objects in the frame, managing the color contrast of the product, making the model look more glamorous, all is a part of photo retouching. Think of it this way, every time a potential customer sees your imagery, they are interviewing your product. Make sure it’s dressed for the job. Image is everything!
Contact jamGD
This is where jamGD comes in. Photo retouching requires technical expertise and a highly creative mindset. jamGD has been providing quality photo retouching for a wide variety of customers, for use on website, packaging, ads and more. For your photo retouching needs, contact us. We’ll make sure your images are picture perfect!