Making products look super good in photos is very important for selling them. The textures of the product must pop out so customers feel like touching it. Are you amazed at seeing shiny and smooth product pics online? You can also make your product photos look awesome by trying these easy retouching tricks.
This is a full guide on making textures better in product photos. We put together all the cool tips, like the best tools to use, how to fix rough spots, what lighting works best, and other smart tricks to make retouching simple for everyone.
Product Retouching – What is it?
Product retouching is when you make a photo of a thing look better. It helps the thing to stand out and catch people’s eyes. Just like how you draw with bright colors to make it pretty, retouching does the same, but on a computer.
Every product in-store or online needs to look its best so people want to buy it. A normal photo can be dull or scholarly, but retouching fixes that. It makes colors pop, removes dust or scratches, and makes everything smooth and shiny.
Even though phone cameras are good now, professional retouching is still best. It makes sure the product looks real but also perfect. Companies love to use these images for ads, websites, and posters. Bad quality or unedited photos are not good for showing how great a product is.
Parents like to take photos of toys or clothes for sale, but without retouching, the photos do not look nice. Retouching helps to keep the product special and makes people want it more. Just like how you keep your best drawings, companies keep retouched photos for a long time to show their best stuff.
Importance of High-Quality Product Photos
Do you like shopping online? Then you know how good photos make you want to buy things. Blurry or dark pictures do not help you see the product nicely. But high-quality photos show every detail and make you feel like touching it.
When you take photos of products, the lights and angles need to be right. Photos taken in good light make colors bright and shadows not too dark. If you put the product near a window or use a lamp, it looks more real and pretty.
Flat surfaces like tables or white backgrounds work best for product photos. No messy stuff around, just the thing you are selling. People like clean photos so they can see what they are buying. If the background is busy, nobody knows where to look.
Even if your phone camera is good, editing the photo after makes it perfect. You can fix the brightness or remove a little dust. Stores with nice photos get more customers because people trust what they see. Bad photos make people think the product is bad, too.
So it always takes time to click the best pictures. Your customers will be happy,y and you will sell more. Just like how you like pretty things, everyone wants to see products in the best way!
Why Should You Consider Retouching Your Photos?
Photos look better when they get retouched. Even if you take a good picture, a few edits make it perfect. Just like how you draw a picture and then color it nicely, retouching makes photos prettier.
Sometimes photos have problems like bad light or skin spots. Retouching fixes these things so everything looks clean and nice. People like to see perfect pictures, not ones with mistakes. When you share photos online or print them, you want them to look their best, right?
Don’t think your photos are good enough? No worries! Retouching can make old photos new again. It brings back colors and removes ugly stuff. Every time you see a retouched photo, you feel happy because it looks so amazing.
You can try simple edits like making brighter or removing pimples. Running, jumping photos, or just standing still – all get better with little retouching. Your memories stay the same, but just more beautiful forever.
So why not retouch your photos? It makes them special, and you love looking at them more. Just like the beach makes you feel free, retouched photos make you feel proud!
Start with a Clean Base Image
Just like you wash your hands before eating, you need a clean photo before retouching. If a picture has dust spots or bad shadows, no matter how much you edit, it won’t look perfect. Starting with a nice, clear photo makes everything easier later.
A good base image means proper lighting and not blurry. Like when you take a photo of a toy in sunlight, not in a dark room. The camera should stay still so the picture does not move. If a photo is too dark or bright, fixing it later is hard work.
Open your image in Photoshop and ensure it’s high-resolution. Begin by cleaning up any imperfections or distractions (e.g., dust, scratches) using the Spot Healing Brush Tool or Clone Stamp Tool. This ensures a smooth starting point for texture enhancement.
For product photos, put items on a plain white table or sheet. No other stuff in the background to distract. Make sure no fingerprints or dirt are on the product, too. Clea,n simple photos let you edit colors and textures better.
Sometimes even good photos need d few fixes. But if it starts with a messy photo, you spend all your time cleaning instead of making it pretty. Like coloring – better to start on clean paper, not scribbled!
Remember: a clean base image saves time and makes the final picture better. Just like a nice background makes a photo pretty, a clean start makes retouching work goodwill Apply the High Pass Filter for Detail Enhancement.
Photos sometimes look soft and not sharp enough. The High Pass filter helps make details pop like magic! It finds all the tiny lines and edges in the picture and makes them more visible. Just like when you trace over a pencil drawing with markers to make it stand out.
First, you make a copy of the photo layer because it is safe. Then go to the Filter menu and find High Pass. Use a slider to choose how much sharpening you want – not too little, not too much. Around 3-5 pixels works well for most pictures.
After applying the filter, change the layer mode to “Overlay” or “Soft Light”. Now you see all textures get clearer! Wrinkles on clothes, hair, product details – everything looks more real and touchable. But remember, too much makes photos look weird and crunchy like chips.
- Duplicate your image layer (Ctrl + J or Cmd + J).
- Select the duplicated layer and go to Filter > Other > High Pass. Set the radius to around 2–4 pixels (depending on your image resolution).
- Change the layer’s blending mode to Overlay or Soft Light. This enhances the fine details of the textures, giving them more definition without overly sharpening the whole image.
This trick works best for product photos where details matter. Like showing stitching on bags or grains on wood. But don’t use it on faces much – it makes your skin look bad with too many lines. Just like makeup, a little bit helps, but too much ruins the picture.
Now your photos look pro with nice crisp details! An easy way to make a boring picture become a wow picture without hard work.
Use Dodge and Burn for Light and Shadow Refinement
Photos look flat when the lights and shadows are not right. Dodge and Burn tools help fix this like a magic pencil! Dodge makes dark spots brighter, Burn makes bright spots darker. Just like when you color with light and dark crayons to make the drawing pop out.
First, make a new layer and pick “Soft Light” mode – this keeps colors safe. Use a soft, round brush with low opacity, like 10-20%. Then paint light where it needs to be brighter, and paint dark where it needs more shadow. A little bit each time is best – can always add more later!
Create a new layer (Shift + Ctrl + N or Shift + Cmd + N) and set its mode to Overlay.
Fill the layer with 50% gray (Edit > Fill > 50% Gray).
Use the Dodge Tool (for lightening) and Burn Tool (for darkening) to enhance the highlights and shadows in the textured areas. Focus on areas that should pop or areas where you want to add more depth.
Remember to zoom out sometimes to check if it looks natural. Lights should follow the same direction. If confused, look at the real object under the lamp to see where the shadows go.
Now your photos have nice depth like pro pictures! An easy way to make things look real without buying expensive lights.
Enhance Texture with the Sharpening Tool
Commercial product retouching makes textures look better. The excitement of seeing a dull image turn sharp and clear is very much fun.
This is a big, important step that makes products look professional and nice. Are you tired of seeing blurry product photos? You can try the sharpening tool too and make cool edits with our easy tips.
To further enhance the texture, use the Unsharp Mask (Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask) or Smart Sharpen (Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen). Start with a low Amount (100-150%) and adjust the Radius and Threshold to avoid harsh or unnatural sharpening.
Use the Layer Mask to mask out areas where you don’t want to sharpen the texture (e.g., overly smooth areas).
This is a full guide on how to use sharpening tools for textures. We put together all the needful details, like the best settings to use, how much to sharpen, what tools work well, and other helpful tricks to make retouching easy for everyone.
Fine-tune with the Frequency Separation Technique
Do you like smooth skin in photos? Try frequency separation to make skin look perfect and clean. Pictures edited with this trick will remind you how bad skin can turn so nice and soft.
Duplicate your base image twice. Name the top layer “High Frequency” and the bottom one “Low Frequency.”
Apply a Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) on the Low Frequency layer to remove fine details.
On the High-Frequency Layer, apply Image > Apply Image to extract the texture details and blend them with the Low-Frequency layer.
Use the Healing Brush Tool to fine-tune any imperfections in the High-Frequency Layer, giving the texture an even more polished look.
Frequency separation works best when you fix spots and wrinkles, but keep the skin looking real. Sitting and working slowly on small areas makes the edits better. You can also use it for shiny parts or shadows by separating colors and textures into layers. It will look amazing.
Add Texture Overlays or Adjustment Layers
Texture overlay is the best way to make boring photos look fancy. Whether you know editing or not, the extra patterns and colors will make your work better. Usually, ly designers use texture layers to fix flat pictures. So now you can make the same magic too.
If you want to add extra texture (like fabric, metal, or paper), you can overlay textures by dragging them into your Photoshop document.
Set the texture layer to a lower opacity (10-30%) or change the blending mode to Overlay, Soft Light, or Multiply for a more natural integration.
You can also adjust the Hue/Saturation (Ctrl + U) or Levels (Ctrl + L) to fine-tune how the texture blends with the product.
Never tried texture overlays before? No worries. Adding them will make your photos special, and you will remember how cool they look every time you see them. You can put soft textures for a nice feel or rough ones for a strong look. Changing colors and blend modes will give awesome results, also.
How can retouching product images save you money?
Apart from new cameras, retouching tools like Photoshop or Lightroom are the best way to make product photos look expensive. You can add a clean look and a pro feeling to pictures without buying fancy equipment. The smooth colors and sharp edges that editing makes can trick people into thinking the photo is from a big studio.
Companies that sell stuff can wear plain white backgrounds or simple props to take the first photo. Then retouching makes it look like a magazine picture. Less money spent on a photoshoot, but still get good results.
Poses that work well for products are a straight front view, a little bit of angle, or close-up details. The action moment of unboxing or using a product gives the best chance for real-looking ads.
Benefits of Professional Photo Retouching
Product photos look real when they show perfect details. But not every product is perfect when you take pictures. Some have scratches, dust, or bad shadows. Retouching can fix these problems and make the product look its best. Even if the product is good, retouching makes it look even better for customers.
Remember not to edit too much. Too smooth textures or wrong colors make products look fake, and people do not trust them. Too much shadow removal can make the product look flat and strange. So use retouching a little bit to keep the real look, but make it prettier.
For small problems like dust spots or little scratches, clone stamp tools work well. For colors, use color correction to make them the same as a real product. And always check before finishing to make sure not to edit too much.
Final thoughts
Transform your product images with precision and professionalism. Let Zenith Clipping elevate your visuals with expert image retouching services. Contact us today to enhance your product textures and make your brand stand out!
