Jewelry Retouching in Photoshop 101

Taking photos of jewelry can be challenging. You might have some trouble capturing all the details of an intricate piece. Sometimes, capturing images of gems may also be difficult because they can look dull in photos and lose the spark your customers are looking for. This is a great challenge even for professional jewelry photographers. They need a special kind of skill to photograph pieces the way they look in person and make them appealing even when posted on websites. This is where jewelry retouching in Photoshop is necessary.

Jewellery editing is an essential practice when it comes to jewelry photography because it allows you to show your pieces online just like how they are in real life. Additionally, low-quality photos will not look good on your website or social media pages. They will not get the attention of your target audience or even cause them to leave your page.

What is Jewelry Retouching?

Jewelry retouching is the process of editing photos of jewelry using different kinds of software to make them look more polished and high-quality. This involves improving the colors, saturation, and sharpness of an image. It can also involve adding shadows and reflections to make a piece of jewelry look more realistic.

How to Edit Jewelry Photos in Photoshop

Photoshop is a photo editing software often used to create different graphics for a variety of uses. It is developed by Adobe Inc. in 1988 and has since become an industry-standard in digital art.

Photoshop is a great software to use for jewelry editing because it offers a wide range of features and options. You can use Photoshop to make different kinds of edits, from simple color corrections to more complicated effects.

To help you get started, we have prepared a jewelry retouching Photoshop guide. Here are the steps on how to edit jewelry photos in Photoshop:

Background Mapping

Having a white background on your jewelry photos can make your products more appealing to customers when posted online. It makes your website or social media page look more professional and legitimate.

To achieve the perfect background for your jewelry photos, you can make sure that your pieces are set on a white backdrop. This will help you set your customer’s focus on your jewelry instead of any other element in the background.

However, white backgrounds may not always be properly captured by cameras. Sometimes, your white backdrop setup may look dim or hazy in photos, which may affect the image quality. To address this issue, you can do jewelry editing in Photoshop.

First, you need to open your image file on the software. Once it’s loaded, you can start with the background mapping process.

To place your product on a white background, you need to clip the jewelry from the original photo using the Polygonal Lasso tool. When cutting the jewelry from the image, it’s best to zoom in to 300% to be able to see and clip all the curves of the jewelry properly and avoid sharp edges.

After clipping the image, you must create a new layer and fill it with white. Then, move your newly created layer under the clipped image layer to make it its background.

You can also make a gradient background to add more creativity to your photo. To do this, you need to select your background layer. Then, go to the Gradient Overlay setting and set the colors you want your gradient to be.

Add and Remove Reflections

Gems naturally reflect ambient light, which looks good in person. However, this reflection may not be accurately represented in photos and can even add an undesirable blur to your product photos. Sometimes, the reflections may even cause the gem to absorb different colors, making it look different from how it really is.

Additionally, different gems have special properties, which cannot be fully captured by cameras in detail. The iridescence of opals and scintillation of diamonds might not be represented well in photos, which takes away their unique qualities.

One of the best ways to address this problem is to take pictures in an ideal setting. You need to have a good ambient light setting and the right background color before you start taking photos of your jewelry.

However, even with the right setup, you might still sometimes encounter undesirable reflections in your jewelry photos. For this issue, it’s best to start jewelry retouching in Photoshop.

With the jewelry photo open in Photoshop, select the Brush tool. Then, use this to erase any unwanted reflections on the gem of your jewelry pieces. You can also use the software’s healing brushes to take care of darker reflections on the photos.

You can also add reflections to your jewelry products by downloading idealistic reflections from extensive libraries online. You can use them to cover up reflections that are too hard to remove or add a little more sparkle to your photos.

Color Correction

Photographing products, especially jewelry, is extra tricky because the camera may not pick up the same colors as those that you see with your eyes. This may make differentiating between kinds of metals on your website hard and may even cause your customers to be misled by the pictures.

For example, a piece of 18-carat gold jewelry may not look gold in the picture on your website but more like silver or white gold. So, when your customers order it, they will be anticipating silver or white gold jewelry but receiving a gold piece, having their expectations unmet.

You can avoid this mishap by editing your jewelry photos in Photoshop. Color correcting your photos on this software will help you improve the metallic sheen and overall appearance of your jewelry.

To achieve this, you can use Photoshop to play around with the saturation and hue of your photo until you get your desired output. You just need to click Picture, choose Adjustment, then pick the Saturation and Hue option.

Add Shadows

Sometimes, jewelry pieces can look fake in photos because they are too two-dimensional. Some people may also think that the product looks drawn instead of photographed. This makes your photos unappealing to online jewelry shoppers.

You need to make your jewelry pieces look more realistic in photos by adding shadows. This will make them look like they are three-dimensional, which is more visually appealing.

With the help of Photoshop, you can create shadows for your jewelry photos. Just open the image on Photoshop and create a new layer. Then, use a black brush to paint over the areas where you want the shadow to be. After that, set the layer to multiply and lower the opacity until you get your desired result.

Sell More Pieces by Editing Your Jewelry Photos in Photoshop

Follow this jewelry retouching Photoshop guide to come up with stunning photos that you can post on your website and social media accounts. Doing so will give your customers a better idea of what they are buying, which will result in more sales.

However, if you are not familiar with Photoshop, you can always work with a company like Jewelry Retouchers, which offers high-end jewelry photo retouching services. This will allow you to get consistent, high-quality results every time. Contact us today for more information.