In the previous blog I had discussed the steps you need to consider during the production process when photographing lifestyle and furniture product images.
In this blog we’ll take a look at the steps you need to consider during the post-production process. Mainly the services and photoshop edits you need to apply to your lifestyle and furniture product before you can upload it to your ecommerce website. Images of ecommerce products require professional Photoshop editing and polishing. Even for the most experienced image editors, it can be quite a daunting task.
Here I have compiled a list of the _ crucial steps you need to keep in mind when editing and retouching your ecommerce furniture images or retouching lifestyle product images for online furniture retailers and their ecommerce websites.
1. Even out and fill in the light
The first thing to do, is to make sure that the lifestyle product image is lit up properly. If not, you must adjust the lighting. Adding brightness and improving exposure can aid in editing any vignetting that may have appeared due to the lens.
This occurs especially in furniture product images as the space required to photograph needs to be big and hence wide angle lens needs to be used for photography.
Although you may take all precautions when photographing the furniture product image, there is a high possibility that you may still capture an ecommerce image which is either underexposed or overexposed. This could be caused by various reasons such as inappropriate shutter speed selection or more commonly due to incompatible aperture.
You must be extremely cautious when adjusting the exposure level of the lifestyle and furniture product image so as to ensure you don’t bring out the noise (grain), leading the ecommerce image to look unprofessional or unappealing. So be cautious!
2. Adjust the clarity and sharpness and straighten out the lines
Due to the fact that the purchase of furniture requires a significant amount of investment, it is obvious that customers would want clear and crisp lifestyle product images to be displayed on the ecommerce websites.
So after the production process and photography is over, it is essential that you adjust the sharpness and clarity of the lifestyle ecommerce product image.
Additionally, you can also adjust the darkness of the furniture image to add a more dimensional look.
Moreover, you should definitely also consider straightening the ecommerce lifestyle product image and its lines to ensure the furniture product image looks centred and properly aligned in the overall framing.
You can also consider resizing it a little at this point to show consistency in all your ecommerce lifestyle product images.
3. Perform color corrections
More often than not, cameras are actually unable to capture the accurate colors of the ecommerce product images. Whether that is fashion clothing items or furniture and lifestyle ecommerce images.
Adjusting the overall temperature of your furniture product images as required can help with fixing the vibrance level of the colours in your lifestyle product image. Be cautious to not overly saturate the ecommerce product image as that might give it a yellowish tinge and further distort the colors.
Oversaturation can easily make an image look fake and unnatural. Adjust the panels and see what your eyes are comfortable with, this will go a long way toward honing your lifestyle and furniture product image color-correcting skills as well as improve your overall understanding of Photoshop.
4. Spot removal and cloning
After performing the aforementioned Photoshop edits it is crucial that you remove all spots, stains and dust/ dirt from the ecommerce lifestyle and furniture product image.
At this point you can also start cleaning up any unnecessary glares or reflections that have appeared on the ecommerce product image.
A good tool you can use for cloning and spot removal is Photoshop’s stamp tool. This allows for far more control over the brush and hence makes it easier to clean up and clone in a way that looks very natural.
ADVANCED EDITING TECHNIQUES
1. Adding in or Eliminating the Image Background Completely
Although I had mentioned in my previous blog, the importance of choosing either a complimentary background or a white background when photographing furniture products and other lifestyle images.
Depending on the colour theme of your lifestyle image, you may want to edit the background out completely (if it isn’t complimentary) or you may wanna add in a white one, as that gives the most crisp and clean looking ecommerce product image.
Various ecommerce platforms and marketplaces suggest a white background in their specific marketplace guidelines for all ecommerce product images. Whether that is fashion clothing, fashion accessories or lifestyle and furniture product images.
The best way to do this, I have found, is using the pen tool provided by Photoshop. Especially when it comes to furniture products and lifestyle photography, you can’t afford to have the customer distracted by other elements in the ecommerce product image. Background removal and editing is a great way to ensure the customer focuses solely on the object you are selling.
2. Restructuring the furniture product and lifestyle image:
Although restructuring as a post-production service is necessary to be executed on every ecommerce fashion image and fashion accessory image. It is most used on furniture photos for lifestyle image photography and lifestyle image retouching.
This particular service is usually available for lifestyle images when ecommerce retailers need to eliminate dimensions they don’t require such as a table the ecommerce product is displayed on, or when an element needs to be added into the image to improve its overall aesthetic appeal. It is especially important when you need to add in a piece of the furniture to your ecommerce lifestyle image or you need to show multiple options of the same furniture. For example, a 2 seater can be made into a 3 seater and vice versa. Our high-end Restructuring Services help you to select only what you need, and create what you don’t have.
Put simply, ecommerce image retouching and lifestyle image restructuring service providers select the best features from different ecommerce products and stills images and combine them into one to craft a natural-appearing ecommerce image which will convey your intended thought.
3. Adding in or Eliminating the Image Background Completely
The easiest way to capture and retain customer attention is to provide an experience to them online that encapsulates the essence of brick and mortar stores through 3D imaging and 360° video view.
There are various tools available in the market that can help you in achieving this by converting your 2D images to 3D images. Additionally, with the 360° view you can showcase all the aspects of your furniture product and lifestyle image will keep revolving. This is usually done by clicking multiple photos of an ecommerce product using a 360° camera and/or table and then stitching all those ecommerce product images together and animating them.
4. Apply Special Effects on the Furniture Product Image
After performing all the above edits, including the advanced ones, you want to try adding something extra, something a little more that can ensure the customer is attracted to your furniture or lifestyle product.
The easiest and best type of effect to add is through lighting. You can play around with the lighting to emphasize the aspects of your furniture product image that appear appealing. Extra illumination will only intrigue your customer. Another thing you can do is add in a drop shadow or a natural shadow depending on the size, shape and/ or look of your furniture product.
Take the help of Ecommerce Photoshop Image Editing Service Providers
There are certain elements required to be added in an ecommerce lifestyle image to bring out the aesthetic value, such as adding shadows, enhancing color, image retouching and other elements. To achieve all of that a Photoshop image editing company is the perfect solution.
Photoshop image retouching experts can easily fix any mistake a photographer or photo studio makes as well as add subtle changes, to enhance the overall aesthetic appearance of the ecommerce product and stills image.
My absolute go-to for this are the exceptionally talented digital product illustrators and photo retouchers at EIE who can dramatically improve the quality appeal of ecommerce product photos, and provide customers with an unforgettable shopping experience.
Here’s Why You Should Choose EIE For All Footwear And Fashion Accessory Retouching Needs:
If you are looking for a perfect outsourcing agency that can truly help you uplift the visual content of your website, you must collaborate with the most renowned outsourcing firm i.e. EIE, trusted by the top international brands for retouching their images.
With 20 years of e-commerce experience, we are pioneers of the industry. We always listen and customize product images based on what you – the clients – want. From simple furniture to complex restructuring: we have retouched millions of ecommerce images.
No matter the need of your furniture brand, our high-end lifestyle and furniture retouching services cater to everything. So come be a part of our EIE family!