Its no secret that better photos increase sales. One thing I have noticed when editing lots of photos is how often the most dramatic improvements come from a few simple edits. If you follow these basic editing steps ALL your product photos will look better.
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Rotate to Orient the Photo
No suprises here – rotate to orient your photo. Then find a horizontal or vertical edge and straighten if necessary.
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Set Color Balance For Whiter Whites
Getting accurate color can be tricky. Try Auto Color Balance first. Check the results – it doesn’t work on all photos depending on lighting and exposure. If the photo still needs adjusting use a manual Color Balance tool (Red, Green, Blue sliders) but be careful not to overdo it.
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Add Contrast To Make Your Photos POP
Boosting contrast will make your photo really stand out (aka POP). Try Auto Contrast first – that often does the trick. If not use do a manual change, but don’t overdo it. TIP: Boosting contrast makes the most dramatic changes to your photo.
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Crop to Focus On the Item
When you’re shooting leave plenty of room around the item. Pick the desired shape (aspect ratio) that frames your item best: square, landscape or portrait. Then Crop to focus on the item. This has two benefits: 1) it cuts out distracting backgrounds and 2) it makes your item larger, so it stands out better.
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Size to Fit
Photos must be resized to specific pixels sizes based on whatever service you use to host your images. A few things to note: scaling DOWN works well, but scaling UP loses image quality, so avoid that if possible.TIP: If you are uploading to a service like eBay or Facebook resize to the largest size they allow to maximize quality.
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Sharpen the Edges
Sharpen changes the edges of objects in the photo. Sharpen lightly as the final editing step. Don’t overdo it though, a little bit goes a long way. TIP: Zoom the photo in to 100% so you can see all the details while you are sharpening – look for the edges. Then check again at normal zoom.
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Save As JPEG
When you are done editing save the results to a file in JPEG format (.jpg, .jpeg). TIP: Start at compression level 85. If you are uploading to a service that processes your photo further (like eBay or Facebook) leave compression at 90 or greater – your photos will often be resized and re-compressed anyway. Super Squish TIP: If you need the smallest possible files you should PREVIEW the results at 100% zoom to check results. Images that are over-compressed look blocky and lose color quality.
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