Image Editing

[Sarnie]

Can someone help me with some image editing for the stuff I sell in my eBay stores?

 

I picture them against a white wall and am looking to be able to edit the pictures to bring out the white wall and enhance the colours of the items.

 

My pics are too 'real' e.g too dark etc....

 

Any pointers would be great.

[Husky]

For most of the photoshop stuff I do I use photoshop elements on my laptop, it's not the most powerful tool but its nice and simple. For a simple approach that doesnt cost you too much time I would;

 

Crop,

Auto fix (sometimes does more harm than good but can save you some time fiddling),

Adjust Lighting>midtone balance, upward slightly (gives more impact in the picture between light and dark, colours "pop" more too),

Adjust contrast and brightness (shouldn't need to do much here if you use a decent camera)

Auto sharpen (be careful as this can pixelate an image horribly)

if there is a prominent colour that looks dead change the colour balance slightly by upping the saturation of that colour,

if the white background isnt "clean" enough then you could use a smart select tool to seperate it from the main image and have a fiddle with it but this takes time and is probably not worth doing.

 

 

I am self tought though so could get corrected here

[SwanageDave]

download adobe lightroom, it is very easy to use and you can alter everything from colour temperature to + & - exposure also cropping.I use it all the time in my photo's.good luck Mate

[Sarnie]

For example:

 

I want them to look like this:

 

 

Mine look like this:

 

 

[LordGrover]

A free option is paintdotnet - very good.

 

ETA: click.

[Husky]

[HaydnH]

Looks like a lighting issue, try adding more light on the wall when you take the photo.

[LordGrover]

@husky

[Sarnie]

Cheers Husky

 

Surely you can 'whitewash' the background almost?

[Husky]

yes you can but you need to cut the thing out from the background, not a diffucult task but a pain if you are doing lots of them. ontop of that it looks unnatural, although you can barely see it there is some shadowing on the background of that yellow shirt which gives it some depth. You are always better off getting the picture right in the first instance and then only use photoshop to tweek a very small amount.

 

and you're welcome

[Sarnie]

That doesn't sound suitable as I'm listing 100 of these a week with 3-5 photo's in each listing.........I was hoping for some kind of bulk editor......I've used Picasa3 previously but still can't achieve the brightness of the first pic I posted......hmmmm

[M13KYF]

photograph the subject further away from the wall, this way you can

 

a) light the wall separately

light the subject individually

c) not cast shadows on to the wall

 

 

the other thing is to draw a mask around the subject to you can then make the wall behind white

[Husky]

probably worth getting hold of some proper white photography lights for a studio to light from different directions.

[M13KYF]

this took 15 mins

 

[Adrian@TORQEN]

How many photos have you got to edit? What's the deadline? PM the details and I'll try my best to help you as soon as possible.

[Sarnie]

this took 15 mins

 

 

 

Cheers Mike that looks great, but I list 100 of these a week with 3-5 photo's in each listing, so 15 mins on one photo is not going to be feasible. I was hoping for a programme like Picasa which allows you to bulk edit your photo's, but I'm just getting the desired results....cheers though

[M13KYF]

I think if you photograph the subject better then that is possible with the suggestions I made earlier. For me I prefer http://pixlr.com/editor/ . Its very like photoshop but online. You have more scope for colour correction and adjusting levels.

 

 

if you shoot further away from the wall the shadows will be greatly reduced. I'd bet that the one your comparing too will of been shot next to a photography cyc wall. You can get portable one that are on a roller with a tripod stand at either end

 

for example http://www.procyc.com/products.php

[TomS]

If the photographs are taken from a tripod in the exact same position then you could setup an action in Photoshop to add a filter to correct the background.

 

You can get Photoshop Elements for about £50 or try using Pixelmator free trial. Not sure if you can do batch actions in this though:

http://www.pixelmator.com/

[neo]

don't know whether this would help just thought i'd share seeing as it's free

 

http://www.irfanview.com/