One key factor in creating great images of products is retouching. All too often it is impossible to get the product and scene 100% clean and blemish free. Tiny bits of dust and scratches can easily spoil things. Product photography retouching is a vital skill needed to create high end advertising images. But as you don’t normally see advertising photos that haven’t been retouched I thought I would give you a few before and after samples to show you what I mean.
Use the sliders on the images below to go between the before and after images.
As you can see, a lot of cleaning up has been done. It is important to get rid of any distractions that risk undermining the clarity of the image. We are creating an idealised version of the product that is targeted to attract your key audience. Leaving any unnecessary reflections or marks can easily make an expensive product look cheap and reduce your chances of making sales. Advertising images and product photography in general is all about creating desire – they are sales tools for your business.
Product photography retouching involves many different elements. With some photos there may be very little polishing to do. Others may need a lot of work to produce the final picture. Some of the things addressed by retouching are, for example, tidying reflections, tweaking contrast, colour correction, sharpening, smoothing out gradients, removing blemishes, adding composite elements, etc. The image below shows a big transformation to the original image including adding in a splash.
There is no need for you to worry about finding the right retoucher for your project. All product photography retouching is done in house once the photography is complete. I will take care of your product images from start to finish and supply you with clean, striking photos that sell.
All images & text, © Joe Lenton, October 2020 All rights reserved
If you would like to find out more about how your business could benefit from high quality product photography please do get in touch.