As a consumer, you understand the importance of imagery. And this is true for most things we do online, from shopping to dating and even in social media. The more attractive an image is, the more inclined we are to buy, swipe right, and give a thumbs up.
As a business owner, this should be the first thing you think about when you’re designing your website or online store. Good copy is crucial, but you could still potentially lose clients without the proper visuals to go with it.
Enter photo editing. You might indeed have a top-notch photographer and a killer art director, but even they would tell you that if you want your photos to convey just how unique your products or services are, some editing would have to be done.
The Advantages of Editing Photos
There’s a debate going on within professional and amateur photography circles about the ethics of photo editing. ; Some believe that photo editing is deceitful; that it does not convey an honest representation of what you have to offer. Others say that editing itself is not wrong; it only becomes wrong when you edit the photos to deceive someone.
Still, regardless of where you stand on that debate, there’s no denying that photo editing is especially useful when you’re running an online retail store.
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You can retouch photos.
This is by far the most popular use of photo editing and is especially helpful if you’re using models to sell your products. Let’s say you run a clothing shop. You can sell clothes better if you have models who could show them off. However, sometimes their makeup isn’t right or you can’t afford to hire a makeup artist. Retouching the photos to give the model the right look would make your products pop and look better on a computer screen.
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You can correct colors and add shadows.
This is a technique that plenty of online jewelers employ. When they do photo editing for their jewelry eCommerce shop, color correction and adding shadows make their jewelry pieces more vibrant and gives it a fuller look. Because they’re offering gemstones and gold bands whose main selling point is their color, color correction allows them to get it as close to the original piece as possible.
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You can tell a story by editing or cutting backgrounds.
One of the main reasons you use photos to sell your wares is to help your buyers envision the benefit of having that item in their lives. And sometimes, you need to do that by placing the item (or the model) in the outside world and not just in the studio. For instance, if you’re selling bathing suits and bikinis, you want to show your consumers how it would look at the beach. You can’t always afford to do that, so editing in a beach background is the next best thing.
Photo editing is a skill that many photographers are adept at nowadays. It’s also been mastered by most creative designers. This technique is an essential step to achieving your business goals, and an expert photo editor would be able to tell you how you can do that through visual storytelling.
