Retouching is commonly required in product photography. Especially for jewelry photography With Retouching. Why? Because zooming in on a product/jewelry photo might reveal dust, stains, and other minor flaws that are obvious in the photo but not when looking at the thing. You also have to deal with reflections when it comes to jewelry and other shiny things.
When retouching jewelry photography, I frequently utilize the following Photoshop tools. This isn’t meant to be a lesson, but if the tools listed below sound like something you’ll need, look them up on the internet and watch a few YouTube videos to learn how to use them. So, in the end, we can say that jewelry photo retouching is pretty important.
Learn More: Adobe Photoshop Layers Tutorials
Please keep in mind that some of the alterations below are based on your tastes; you may or may not appreciate some of the changes I’ve made. It’s for this reason that finding product photographers is challenging.
Everyone has their editing preferences and style. Adobe Lightroom is a powerful photo editing software that focuses on organizing and processing large volumes of images efficiently. Most of the tools listed below are also available in Photoshop Elements.
Let’s discuss the basic 10 tips to make jewelry photo retouching a very effective way in 2024.
1. Work for The Better Lighting
You need to focus on lighting in case of Jewelry photo retouching. The lighting utilized on the product is one of the most difficult aspects of photographing jewelry. It’s possible that the illumination is either too bright or too dim at times.
Unwanted details may appear due to the various lighting conditions, giving you a less-than-ideal view of the necklace. The shine of the stone may be dimmed, and the brilliance of aluminum, gold, and silver may be reduced as a result of poor lighting.
Even when it’s brand new, jewelry can collect a lot of dust. The camera just records all of the things that you may be unhappy with. Diamonds reflect light differently depending on their surroundings.
- It’s time to take the photo now that you’ve completed the preparations.
- You’ll see that the jewelry still looks raw after shooting the photo, with a few places that can be tidied up with Photoshop.
- Because of the atmosphere utilized to shoot jewelry, you will not get the ideal image that you are hoping for.
- This is where retouching enters the picture.
- Our goal for 77 Diamonds was to create high-end product photographs that persuade viewers to buy, not just gorgeous jewelry photos.
2. Color Adjustment
Don’t forget to adjust the color while doing jewelry photo retouching. Making sure the colors look the way they want to after shooting is the next step in learning how to edit jewelry images.
You want the color to stand out. Most jewelry photographs might appear a little dull at first after shooting. When retouching jewelry, it’s crucial to avoid a dull tone.
- Certain hues would appear to the naked eye but not to a computer viewer.
- With photo editing software, you must bring the colors to life.
- Changing the color balance is one method to bring the colors to life.
- Play with the image’s brightness and contrast to brighten and improve the dreary hues.
- We simply need to make a few more changes to make your necklace seem the way it was intended to look now that the colors have stood out.
With the help of photo editing software and the expertise of a CAI Color Correction service, you can adjust the color balance, brightness, and contrast to bring out the true beauty of the jewelry.
3. Use a smudge to create a gradient shine
To smudge colors around a specific portion of the image, use the smudge tool (brush-based) in case of jewelry photo retouching. The arrows depict the white light shining on the pearls in the left set of earrings seen below. Take note of how I was able to alter them in the correct version. Colors are literally smudged with the smudge tool, giving the pearls a lovely gradient shine.
The original image is good as well, but some clients require additional alteration for an image that will be used in a print ad, on their homepage, or in another prominent location. Edits like this are helpful in certain situations, especially for jewelry photo retouching.
To use this feature, click and drag on the area you wish to smear using the smudge tool, then set a brush size.
4. Use Contrast and brightness to make colors pop
While doing jewelry photo retouching most of us have used brightness and contrast adjustments because they are included in most free picture editing software. Brightness enhances the entire image, as the name implies. Colors get deeper/richer, and the lighter regions of the image contrast more with the darker areas, thanks to contrast. This enhances the vibrancy of the colors.
Also, Learn: How to Use the Color Replacement Tool
Adding contrast to product photos, in my opinion, improves their appearance. Brightness tends to oversaturate the image, resulting in a loss of detail. However, it is dependent on your image, the colors in it, and the lighting, so experiment with the sliders to discover what appears best to you. Applying this will make the jewelry more well-balanced.
To utilize it, go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast on the top menu. Play with the sliders to see how they affect your image.
5. Hue/Saturation to alter the image’s hues (or parts of it)
To adjust the color of metals or the color of the object itself, I utilize the Hue/Saturation tool. If you have ten different stones in the same style of jewelry, for example. Photoshop can be used to change the color of some stones.
You can, for example, turn blue to green or orange to yellow. Altogether this jewelry photo retouching will give the photograph an even better shape.
Instruction for Using it: Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation from the top menu. Select blues from the drop-down menu (because I just want to modify the color of the bluestone) and experiment with the various sliders.
The hue slider alters the color, the saturation slider intensifies the color, and the lightness slider makes the color lighter or darker.
6. Remove Unwanted Objects And Spots
Raw photos are hardly always perfect. Even if you have the right setup, have checked the surroundings, and are taking photos of brand-new jewelry, chances are that you might have missed something. It could be something unnecessary in the background or on the jewelry piece, or a spot of dirt that went unnoticed.
Nevertheless, things like that are the last things someone would want to see when looking at bright and shining pieces of jewelry. So when retouching the images, it is essential to pay attention to those tiny details.
Removing unnecessary objects and spots does not just make the image appear cleaner. It also helps you change the look of the jewelry, which will automatically appear brighter. Besides, spots and smudges make the jewelry look old and defective. However, removing them during the post-production retouching process helps eliminate that issue.
Photoshop offers various tools for removing such unnecessary objects or spots. You can use the Pen Tool, Object Removal Tool, Selection Tool, Dodge Tool, Healing Brush Tool, etc., depending on how small, large, or complex the issue is. Most of these tools are easy for object removal and recovering lost pixels.
7. Use Shadow Effect And Reflection Removal Tools
In jewelry photos, two more things that need retouching often are shadow and reflection or glare. But why?
Almost all jewelry items are shiny and have crystals or stones on them. That makes it easier for other things to reflect on them. And when putting them on display, it looks unattractive and unprofessional when the reflection shows.
But you can fix it up using the Healing Brush Tool, Clone Tool, Dodge Tool, etc. As you drag the tool over the object where the reflection is shadowing, Photoshop will detect similar pixels and fill the area with those.
And not just that, but due to the light, environment, and the type of jewelry piece, the shadow can change or may not show at all. And if there is no shadow or the shadow does not appear genuine, the audience or customers will not believe in the product’s authenticity.
So to make the image more realistic, you must apply a natural shadow effect when retouching the image. Since there are several types of shadows, you can either create a silhouette or reflective shadow based on what will look better.
However, with the use of photo editing software, such as Photoshop and our Photoshop Drop Shadow Service, you can add a natural shadow effect to your jewelry images. Creating a silhouette or reflective shadow can greatly enhance the overall look and feel of your product, ensuring that your customers believe in the authenticity of your jewelry piece.
8. Know How To Change And Correct the Color
While the color adjustment ensures the real color appears brighter in the images, correction and change work differently. And this is how it goes.
In color adjustment, you adjust the color how you or the clients want. But in this case, you apply color correction to bring back the original color, which might have faded or looked dull in the raw version. And if you or your client want a different color, you can apply the color-changing method.
For jewelry photo retouching, the color change process is applied when you need to turn gold into silver or platinum and vice versa. So make sure you know how to change jewelry color in Photoshop to apply this when retouching the photos. But when doing this, you must make it as natural as possible.
Also, Learn: How To Change the Background Color In Photoshop 2024
9. Retouch The Background Or Base
Don’t leave out the background when retouching jewelry photos. Because the background is obviously what highlights or dims the image subject.
In most cases, white backgrounds are used widely for product photography as they offer more visibility for the subject. But sometimes, natural, colorful backgrounds are also used.
And then comes the base on which the product is placed in an upright position. Sometimes, it can be something of various colors or just a glass surface.
Regardless of the base, background color, or type, you must not rule them out. If the background or the surface the product is on does not seem suitable, you might need to correct it. Correction can mean removing flaws, color adjustments, or just changing the entire background.
You can use the Pen Tool, Object Selection Tool, Masking Tool, etc. when working on the image background. And if the base the product is standing on is reflective, make sure the reflection does not capture anything unnecessary.
10. Use Layer Based Retouching
Let’s not forget the most important tip that will help you with jewelry image editing. If you are using Photoshop software to edit your images, you have plenty of advantages in how you edit, save, and re-edit the image if necessary. And the option that helps you during retouching an image is the layer.
When retouching jewelry photos, or any other photo, layer-based editing will save a lot of your time and effort in case something goes wrong. But how does it help?
Suppose you have done polishing in one layer of the image and moved to another for color correction and then shadow effect. But in the end, for some reason, you realize that the color or the polishing needs a bit of adjustment.
Now here is when the use of layers helps you because you can go back to the layer you worked on for color and polishing adjustment and fix the issues. If you did not retouch the image on a layer basis, you would have to undo all your work to go back to that part or leave the task, however, it turns out.
That is why you should always use layers when editing or retouching the images.
Also, Learn: Best Free Photoshop Alternatives in 2024
Conclusion
You can do a lot with Photoshop, but the tools listed above are the ones you should use most. Many of these are straightforward to use, so learn how to use them by watching them on YouTube or seeing our blog article.
If any of the tools in the submenus above sound interesting, give them a try. Any brush-based tool works in the same way: choose a tool, and a brush size, and begin painting where you wish to make changes.
