How to Retouch Ring Photos for your Catalog

A brand’s catalog is essential for any company because it affects a potential client’s perception of the brand and its offerings. So, when it comes to jewelry and creating a catalog for your pieces, you’ll want only the most visually appealing photos of your rings.

Even the most proficient photographers won’t get the perfect shot to showcase your pieces without some post-process. This is why getting a little help by retouching your ring’s photos is sure to go a long way when it comes to your brand’s image.

Jewelry retouching is a necessary part of curating your catalog and we’ve made a guide to help you enhance your ring’s photos for your listings.

Product Knowledge

A product catalog is an essential part of any business and can contribute significantly to your brand’s success online. Clear and crisp images are what make excellent photos, but this can only be done with the proper knowledge of your products.

Brushing up on your ring’s specifics, like what stones it contains and the material it’s made of, can make for quicker ring photo editing and more accurate images.

Fixing the Background

When you look around the internet, you’ll notice that product photos are done on neutral backgrounds, and this is a common practice in the retail industry. Why, you may ask? Well, this ensures that the customer’s attention will only be on the piece that you’re showcasing and that its details and colors are emphasized.

To better showcase your rings, it’s best to put them on a white background. You can do this through software like Photoshop.

  1. Open the image and then select your ring. If you’ve managed to capture the photo on a uniform background, you’ll be able to use the magic wand tool to select your ring. If not, you can use the pen tool to manually cut out the ring.
  2. Once you’ve selected your ring, delete the background, and create a new layer.
  3. Fill the new layer with the color white at 100% opacity.

A quick ring-editing tip: If you have an intricate piece, make sure to zoom in and check if the background has applied to all parts of the ring.

Focus Stacking

Capturing your ring in full focus might be a bit difficult, even with a high-end camera. This is why focus stacking is an essential ring photo retouching trick. By using this quick and east process, you’ll be able to keep your entire image looking sharp.

  1. Select all the photos you have of your product on Photoshop.
  2. Go to File then Scripts and click on the Load files into stack option.
  3. When the load layers window is open, click on Add open files and check the box that says Attempt to automatically align source images.
  4. Go to Edit and click on Auto blend layers.

At the end of this, you should have a clear and crisp photo of your ring that’s completely in focus and ready for retouches.

Correcting the Color

The color of your ring may not translate to your cameras lens as well as you see it. This kind of misstep can lead to a misunderstanding between your customers and your company. Correcting this distortion is an important step for you to deliver accurate photos to your customers.

Here’s how you can amend these discrepancies using photoshop:

  1. Go to layer then to New adjustment layer then to Levels.
  2. Select the correct color channel and adjust your sliders to adjust the tones of your photo.

Once you’ve set the correct color for your product, you can now move on to the next step. Don’t forget to save your progress!

Retouching the Ring

Your ring may look perfect in person, but a camera is able to capture all its minor imperfections. These minor flaws can be dirt, fingerprints, towel fibers, and more. The great part about modern technology is that all of these can easily be manipulated away using a brush tool on Photoshop.

Here’s how you can retouch your ring’s photo using this tool.

  1. Create a new layer and set the blend mode to Lighten.
  2. Select the brush tool and set it to 0% hardness and 30% opacity.
  3. Sample a color from your ring’s metal and simply brush over the imperfections.

Using this method won’t paint over the highlights but will go over the darker spots on your ring. You can adjust the opacity according to your ring photography’s retouching needs.

Clarifying the Stones

Apart from the band, the precious stone on your ring is a key selling point for anyone looking to make this purchase. Unfortunately, gems naturally reflect light, and this might not render well on devices, which might give your product that undesirable glare. To rectify this, you can use Photoshop’s healing brush tool to erase these unwanted reflections.

  1. Zoom in and use the healing brush tool on these glares.
  2. Add more contrast and sharpness to your stones using the sharpen tool.
  3. Use the dodge tool to add more brightness to the gems.

These edits are a great way to better represent your product but make sure not to go overboard. After all, you don’t want to give a false idea of your product to your customers.

Adding Realistic Shadows

Raw jewelry photos will usually look two-dimensional on-screen. Shadows can help in this aspect by giving your products a more realistic look by giving it more depth. It can also make your product look more professional and visually attractive.

Doing this quick edit can dramatically elevate your photo. So, here’s how you can add shadows to you ring through photoshop:

  1. Begin by creating a new layer and selecting the brush tool.
  2. Set the tool to black and use it over the areas that you want to add shadows to.
  3. Set the layer to multiple and adjust the opacity to your desired value.

Final Touches

Once you’re done with all your ring photo’s edits, it’s time to give it one final look before moving on to your next project. It’s natural to want to breeze through this process, but this is an essential task before uploading your photos.

To make sure that you’re only putting out high-quality images, zoom in and check if there are any blemishes that you might have missed. You should also check on the color of the stones to see if they’re colored correctly and if they’re shimmering just right.

Lastly, look at the shadows you added to see if it looks natural.

Once you’re done doing all of these and if you’re happy with the overall look of the photo then it’s time for you to export these photos for use. 

Elevating Your Brand

Now that you know how to edit jewelry photos, it’s time for you to apply these ring retouching tips to your brand’s catalog. A cohesive catalog is key to establishing your brand’s identity, and customers are more likely to purchase from brands that have solid branding and the right portfolio to back it up.

If you’re still not confident in executing the task of curating your brand’s catalog, then why not outsource this task to a company that has jewelry photo retouching services?

Jewelry Retouchers offers this service with the promise of making your products look flawless – no matter what angle. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our services!

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