How to edit product photos before uploading them to an online store?In the last few weeks, we have talked a lot about photography and more specifically about product photography. We have talked about how a simple smartphone can be used to take high-quality photos and we have also given you some tips to improvise good lighting, and we have also commented on some gadgets that can greatly facilitate our lives, such as the rotating lightbox. Today I want to talk about how to edit product photos before uploading them to an online store.
We have also talked about many mobile applications that will allow you to quickly improve your photos, but to have really good results you will have to resort to a computer. I normally use Photoshop, but there are other programs that can give you a more than a remarkable result, some free and online, that can save you from using a program as heavy as Adobes.
Alternatives to Photoshop to edit product photos
Photoshop is the basic tool for every designer or photographer, image clipping service but if you don't have access to it, don't despair. There is life beyond, even some free options that do not have much to envy for certain tasks.
Pixel Editor: A free and online program, with which you can do many of the things that Photoshop allows in a very intuitive way. (You must have flash player installed)
How to edit product photos with Pixel editor
GIMP: In this case, we must install the program, which is still free. It is somewhat less easy to use than Pixel Editor. But its possibilities are enormous. Here is a comprehensive tutorial on this tool.
How to edit product photos with Gimp
Sumo Paint: In this case, we have an online version and a downloadable version. It is a really powerful program, with various options for retouching with layers and filters.
How to edit product photos?
Opening the program and starting to edit a photo can make a bit of an impression, however, basic editing is relatively easy to do. I am going to explain some steps that I usually follow in Photoshop.
Crop the photo: One of the first steps is to know what proportions the store that we are going to use asks for and cut the image accordingly. In Photoshop, simply choose the cropping tool and enter the ratio (1: 1 if it is square, in this case, I test by cropping the image to 600 x 600 pixels). Doing this step first is important because it will provide us with the following.
How to edit product photos with photoshop
Adjust levels: Open the levels window (Image> Adjustments> Levels) and drag the left arrow (highlights) to the point where the histogram. Then move the grays to achieve more contrast.
How to edit product photos with photoshop levels
Clean the photo: Very possibly you will see in the photo that the product has some dust. Create a new layer and with the clone tool proceed to delete them. Adjust the tool so that the edges are smooth and slightly larger than the speck you want to remove. Leave the opacity at 100%.
How to edit product photos with photoshop clone
Match the background: Open the replace color window (Image> Adjustments> Replace color) Choose the eyedropper tool and select the darkest area of the background. Then use the different bars to light up these darker areas. The overexposure tool can also be used to whiten the edges without losing the shadows around the product.
How to edit product photos with photoshop replace the color
Color correction: In case you see that you cannot match the background in its entirety, you will have to resort to the famous "Pen" tool and start joining nodes around the entire edge of the figure making a "path". To make it more precise, zoom in so that you can guide yourself well through the entire silhouette.
How to edit product photos with photoshop pen tool
How to edit product photos with photoshop pen tool How to edit product photos with photoshop pen tool
Create a selection: When all the tracing is complete, go to the "tracing" window.
1- click on the "work path"
2- Click on the menu in the upper right corner.
3- click "make a selection ..."
How to edit product photos with photoshop selection traced
Copy & paste: Once you have the selection made, you must copy and paste the selection in a new layer so that the object is isolated.
1- Make a copy (command or control "C")
2- Go to the top menu and click: Layers / New/layer
3- Paste selection with (command or control "P")
How to edit product photos with photoshop copy to a new layer
Lighten the background, go back to the background layer and lighten it to make it white without losing the shadow of the object.
1- click on the "Layers" window
2- Click on the background layer
3- Go to Image> Adjustments> Levels, and in the middle and light level selectors move them to the left until you see that all the background is uniformly white without going over the hat. Roughly follow the example.
How to edit product photos with photoshop levels
Adjust the focus and size: One last step, open the unsharp mask (Filters> Sharpen> Unsharp Mask) play around with the values. for this case, I have put: Quantity, 20; Radio 2.0; Threshold, 0. But depending on the image, it will take a little more or less of each variable. Experiment.
How to edit product photos with photoshop focus
Save for web: We finally have the edited image! now so that we can save it to a good image quality/weight ratio. Use the "Save for web" mode
1- Go to the main menu File> Export> Save for web.
2- It will show you an interface that allows you to compress the image. I recommend that you use JPG adjustment in "high quality" with a quality of 60%. No more is needed.
In fact, at the bottom left you can see the weight that the image will have when saving.
How to edit product photos for your online store
I hope that this post on how to edit product photos has helped you to solve some basic questions about how to edit your photos before uploading them to the online store and that it helps you to see that with a few simple steps you can have great results.
you may read also about Clipping_photography
|
