Color photography made photos reflect the real world. This added realism is just the solution to the lack of tangibility of products that is characteristic of eCommerce. Digital image correction, particularly color correction, can add the missing touch to eCommerce product photos and turn them into assets capable of delivering high conversion rates. It can enhance every type of photo that a photographer can capture, taking the realism-adding ability of color photography to new dimensions.
The development of technology has opened up new opportunities to alter photos. Services like HDR Blending add grandeur to images that make them truly stand out. And the need to stand out from the crowd is a key driving factor behind making these services an inevitable part of photography today.
If you have an eCommerce or a photography business that could use the wonders of color correction to push it to the next level, then this guide is for you. Read on to learn what the process is all about and the many benefits it can offer.
The Need for Color Correction in Photography
We consider it an art for a reason: it takes creativity and getting the conditions right to produce the best view of a subject. However, achieving the intended result is not always possible because of a host of practical constraints.
Following are some issues that could affect true color reproduction in photography:
Poor lighting conditions could make the colors appear faded.
Excessive light can mask the colors altogether.
If the color of the lighting in the space of photography is not neutral, then the colors of various objects in that space will be distorted.
Lens flaring can interfere with the colors in the image taken.
On-board hardware in the camera may distort the colors during or before processing.
Image processing algorithms may distort the colors before producing the final result.
It may be hard to capture lighting effects created by some products.
Even if everything technical about the photoshoot goes right, the result may not be strong enough to create the impact expected.
The solution is to retake photos or have them corrected via digital image correction methods. The former may take a long time and increase costs. Hence, the latter is the preferred option.
Actions Taken to Correct Image Colors
The various issues affecting accurate color reproduction in photographs require specialized processes to correct them. Modern technology combined with the skills of expert image editors can render even the most unusable photos into works of art worthy of displaying products on eCommerce sites in all their glory. They can also work wonders on old photos that are faded and add life back into them. The following processes are how they make it all possible.
Yf7fTqd4BvMx0fw5vKr7yjjzy3xbXn2rRNFiG4jnZarr3gQSFPcoglWpRGAA2PSnuKwS7f7Yf4RLq9hEYzXXj6y2bv9ii1U7Ynk_NK419Vb-Qht4_d7H9WrE743OO4jXphBaPavGpOZpHsi0VOIFRipLHzgk9n6VN4gd7mE-Y83LojIQW9L2Gk8t2iOvaIZUzbxqXRrqsQ
Highlight and Mid-Tone Adjustment
There are three important components of lightning photography: highlights, mid-tones, and shadows. Highlights are the brightly lit areas of the image, shadows are the darker parts, and mid-tones are in between. Depending on the requirement and the photographer’s skills, the image can be well-balanced, meaning all three are proportional or imbalanced. The manipulation of these lets editors and photographers adjust the colors of an image.
The contrast between highlights and shadows can give a pop-up effect that works well for product photography. By making the background darker and highlighting the product, viewers will better notice the details present in that product. This will enable them to see the variations in colors as well, which is important for products that have subtle variations.
Saturation Increase
Saturated colors provide the feel of richness in images that subjects' human brains are naturally drawn to. Overdoing this can make the product feel inauthentic, as it will look artificial.
Saturation can be adjusted in cameras, but that is limited in its breadth. The better option is post-processing, where experts use digital tools to intuitively adjust the color saturation of individual objects in images or the image overall. The sliders used for adjustment here are hues, saturation slider, levels/curve, and master control. Photographers adjust saturation in cameras using polarizing filters, slight underexposure, in camera saturation panel, or by switching the color space from RGB, to another.
Shadow Desaturation
While saturating the bright spots of the image gives better colors, desaturating shadows makes them darker and more contrasting. This forms a part of the saturation adjustment mechanism that is used to give a cinematic effect in videos, which is just what product videos require. Marketers looking to sell products by producing a story around them will find these adjustments useful. Levels and Curves are the easiest way to desaturate images, as they allow for the entire range of highlights and shadows to get adjusted.
Waveforms and Histograms
The technical information about images is represented by histogram graphs and waveforms for concise and precise understanding. Waveform displays indicate the RGB values. They usually range between 20 and 90, with those below 0 and above 100 indicating colors outside the visible color spectrum. Thus, ecommerce photo editing experts can use waveform limits to manage highlights and shadows. Color balancing can be done by maintaining RGB channels on the same level.
Histograms are useful for improving exposure and color balance. Since, they represent the number of pixels for every level falling between bright whites and dark blacks. The left side of the histogram contains the darker elements, while the right has the lighter counterparts. Photographers manipulate color histograms by sliding them to the right if it shifts to the left and vice-versa. The shift indicates over or underexposure of the image, thus requiring photographers and image editors to balance it out. Color histograms work similarly to black-and-white ones, except that it represents the RGB pixels in the frame.
Masks and Vignettes
Masks and vignettes are some of the most powerful photo tools around and a crucial part of digital image correction. A vignette is the gradual darkening of an image’s edges, while a mask is a circular contraction with harder edges. They are powerful because they help with local color grading, providing precise control over every color detail.
The common masking techniques are Pin-hole zoom and Voyeur. The first one closes or opens a field of view in a frame. It is used to soften the image’s edges. The second one provides a binocular point of view. It gives the viewer the impression that they are looking at the subject of an image through a lens, hole, or opening. It adds darker shades to photos and creates a haunting atmosphere.
Vignettes like graduated neutral density are used to add darker shades to shots to increase suspense and its creative value. Colored vignettes are used to show a subject’s point of view in videos, which can be useful for POV videos used to give a glimpse of the experience a buyer can have with a product.
Why Should eCommerce Businesses Go for Color Correction Services?
Running an eCommerce business is not for the faint of hearts. It entails giving constant attention to multiple responsibilities simultaneously. While you may enjoy this challenge as an entrepreneur, the reality is that it can get overwhelming to the point where the quality of work drops across the board. And no eCommerce seller can afford to fall behind like that when the competition is relentlessly progressing. Hence, it is the norm for sellers to outsource their important but non-core functions like product photo correction services to dedicated agencies.
xDmDmdpVWzolJoAcb88w75MlXu_dYnz5TsjF8W58Hp2dTqWx4PhmDzTC-105SNTTC_nqXKX93LRDvJn27zp81CZ9dtgLnukb6mRTrMicmFxR-Q8TeQKOTZuNKzrBMFwdUEx2aI7UnKaaZLkxh5zBn-xOxdmOKJ1G6iY-kiRGf4UyWvPos42Wgwz8G1s20BdY
There are many benefits to be gained by this outsourcing move.
Cost Cutting
The reduction in costs of getting even complex tasks like color correction done is the primary driver behind outsourcing it. The other option is to hire such experts in-house and maintain them with adequate pay and necessary equipment. These quickly add up and will start to gnaw away at your profits. And as a business operating on tight margins, eCommerce sellers are generally not in a position to do this.
With outsourcing, you gain these experts at a fraction of the cost due to the agency hiring them in large numbers. If the agency is based in a developing country, then you also get the benefit of currency exchange values. It saves your business a lot of money while delivering the kind of photos you need to sell well.
Quick Turnaround Time,
Time-to-market, makes all the difference for an eCommerce seller. The slower you are, the higher the chances of your competition beating you to a sale. Hence, you need to have your product photos edited and delivered to you on schedule at the latest to make the sales figures you need.
Outsourcing color correction services can get your photos edited with quick turnaround times. The experience possessed by experts working there, along with the latest tools used, helps edit photos quickly. You save precious time as a result, and post them on your site before the competition and garner valuable market share.
Use Of the Latest Tools
Outsourcing agencies operate with multiple clients at once and have to keep pace with the latest developments in their industry too to remain competitive. The technological tools like hardware and software used will turn obsolete if they don’t upgrade regularly.
Hence, when you outsource your color correction to them, you can rest assured that your photos will get the best-in-industry work done on them. You can get special effects like HDR blending added to them to truly make the product pop out.
Market-Specific Edits
Your experience in selling online may be limited to your home market. While your marketing strategy may be working fine here, there’s no guarantee that it’ll work in markets you wish to expand into. This includes the color scheme of your product images.
You may need to tweak your brand/product color scheme to better suit local tastes. In some cases, you may need to introduce new images altogether. If you outsource color correction services to an agency that operates internationally, you’ll have this issue sorted out conveniently.
They will have experts based in multiple markets who can tailor the images according to local tastes, thus making your product images not just palatable to the audience there, but also appealing. It will help you gain more market share there easily.
Instant Access To Expertise
Gaining digital image correction experts within a short time is one of the hardest parts of recruiting for an in-house team. You’ll need to do a lot of background checks for the ones that do show up, and you have to wait till you get one such person. In the meantime, your losses will be mounting due to the delays.
Outsourcing solves this problem by giving you instant access to the required number of experts. Such agencies have well-established protocols to constantly acquire high-quality experts to meet their demands. Thus, you won’t face any delay in getting your project going. The quick access also allows you to use them as guides to enhance your overall image editing strategy.
Also Read: 7 Incredible Logo Design Hacks For a Startup
Conclusion
The field of photography is an ever-evolving one, with photographers pushing the limits of what’s possible. Technology is playing a major role in this transformation, providing a plethora of tools to both photographers and editors. Coincidentally, eCommerce is also creating a stir in the retail space, with more people seeking new purchases and customer retention experiences. Therefore, it makes sense to combine these two industries, with the help of color correction services, to render appealing, vivid images to get the desired conversions for business growth.
You must be logged in to post a comment.