A raw photo can be great. But it can always be better. Small edits like changing the brightness or shadow can make a picture look much more professional. A raw photo often lacks the depth and spark of a good product image. You know the picture should be great, but you can’t pinpoint what’s missing.
That’s where Professional photo manipulation comes in. The most common approach is photo editing and retouching services. Photo retouching and photo editing are not the same. One focuses on the major changes, and the other makes the photo look good.
It’s important to understand what these are. Knowing will help you get what to ask for when it comes to your business or brand. Great photos help you sell more products and make you look more professional. With that being said, let’s talk about these two and discover which you need.
What is Photo Editing?
Photo editing is the first step of making your raw images better. It involves making adjustments with broad impacts to the whole photo; the goal is to make an image that looks as good a picture as a professional image.
Photo editing resolves the common elements of picture taking. It is improving the foundation of the image so that it is balanced, engaging, and captivating. It makes it better.
Here are the main aspects of photo editing.
- Adjusting Brightness/Exposure: This is what you do when your photo looks too dark or too bright? Editing can fix that and help every element become apparent.
- Adjusting Contrast/Saturation: This is where the colors really start to jump. It can take a dull portrait of something and make it dynamic, impactful, and full of energy!
- Correcting Contrast and Saturation: This is when the colors go from flat to vivid. A boring image comes to life.
- White Balance and colour correction: This is a very important step. Sometimes, a camera sees colors differently from our eyes. This step makes sure all the color looks realistic. The white looks white, and the other color matches the real color of the product and looks natural.
- Straightening and cropping: This is a very handy step. If the photo has something you don’t want, you can simply cut it out. Some photos even need straightening or tilting to look perfect. This step takes care of all that.
Photo editing gives your regular images a professional vibe. Now that we have got the photo retouching part covered, let’s talk about photo retouching. Find helpful photo editing tips here.
What is Photo Retouching?
If photo editing is about the forest, photo retouching is about the trees. Retouching is a very meticulous thing. It’s as if you’re a digital artist, deploying special instruments to make every little thing about the image perfect.
For photo retouching, the aim is to eliminate all distractions. This could be a tiny pimple on someone’s face or an out-of-place sign in the background. It’s an actual digital enhancement designed to make the main subject of the photo look perfect!
The following are some well-known photo retouching methods:
- Fading Blemishes and Wrinkles: This part focuses on making your picture look good. It can give you smoother skin and remove acne that looks bad in the picture. You can also soften wrinkles or even remove them to make the person look good.
- Swapping and Removing Backgrounds: You often need a white or clean background for a professional photo. By retouching, you can completely swap it with something that looks better and professional.
- Teeth whitening: This is important for model photography and portraits. You can make someone’s smile look better.
- High-end retouching: Fashion magazines and large advertisements. All of the other criteria involve more advanced techniques, such as shape-changing a dress or making jewels glitter like crazy!
Photo Editing And Retouching Services
If we consider building a house. There are 2 major steps. Building the house and then decorating the house to make it a home. Building the house means making the walls. The roof. This is like photo editing. Retouching is more like painting the house or adding furniture.
You need both aspects to turn a house into a beautiful home. You need both photo editing and retouching to turn a photo into a breathtaking image.
Let’s look at the difference.
| Feature | Photo Editing | Photo Retouching |
| Main Goal | To enhance the whole photo | To perfect the small details |
| What it Fixes | Brightness, color, contrast | Blemishes, objects, backgrounds |
| Changes | Big, overall adjustments | Small, specific adjustments |
| Complexity | Usually simpler and faster | More complex and takes more time |
| Tools Used | Basic sliders for exposure, etc. | Advanced tools like clone stamp |
The post-production process is just a fancy term for everything that happens after the photo is taken. A truly great image often goes through both editing and retouching. This is why professional photo editing often includes both.
Which Service Do You Need for Your Business?
Now the question remains. Which service is right for you? It’s actually pretty simple. You just prioritize your needs according to your brand’s needs. Here are a few examples of which businesses need what services.
For eCommerce Stores:
If you sell products online, your photos are everything. You need both editing and retouching. You’ll need photo editing to make sure all your product photos look consistent. This means the colors and brightness should be the same across your whole website. This is called product photo optimization.
Photo retouching is also very important. You need retouching to make your images flawless. But the raw picture might have dust or spots in it. You simply remove it by retouching your product image. This makes your photos look high-quality and professional. And this makes people wanna buy from you. That’s why you need a photo retouching and editing service for your brand image
For Professional Photographers:
If you’re a photographer, there is a good chance you do some editing yourself. However, retouching each and every one of the images can be frustrating. Retouching every single photo from a wedding or large photoshoot can be a monumental task.
Many photographers consider outsourcing photo editing, especially retouching. This saves time. This allows you to concentrate on taking beautiful pictures without wasting hours. Retouching. A professional photographer might ask for services like skin smoothing or removing distracting things from wedding photos..
For Real Estate Agents:
When selling a house, you want your photos to look amazing. Real estate photo editing is essential. Frequently, this is editing for brightness and warmth, and therefore increased appeal in images of rooms.
Retouching is also essential. You might need to remove a car from the driveway or make the grass look greener. Sometimes you might even need to remove the mess from a room to make it look bigger. Or maybe you need to show how the room is going to look when furnished. If you can make your photos look good for your customers, you are already halfway there.
The Benefits of Professional Photo Editing and Retouching Services
You may be thinking, “Isn’t this something I can do myself?” Well, there are a ton of apps available, but they don’t compare to a professional photographer! There is a huge advantage to using professionals!
You get a more professional brand:
When your photos look professionally taken, your business looks professional. Nice clean imagery signals customers that you care about quality, which builds trust and makes them more likely to choose you!
You can increase your sales:
For online retailers, great photos = sales! So, investing in professional photo editing services for a great return on investment!
You save time and money:
Photo editing and retouching take a long time, not only to learn but to execute. By hiring a professional service, you can take your time back and devote it to growing your business. You don’t need to worry about hiring a full-time editor. This means no salary, no device, and no extra office space.
You Get Consistent Quality:
A professional service will make sure all your photos have a consistent look and feel. If your brand looks consistent, people will easily trust your brand. They will keep coming back if they get what they see.
Outsourcing professional photo editing and photo retouching services is a smart move for any business that relies on images.
Final Thoughts
So, what is the difference between photo editing and retouching? In broad terms, editing improves the photo, while retouching makes it perfect. Editing makes the major changes, like brightness and colour. Retouching makes small changes, like removing blemishes or unwanted objects.
Most incredible photos you see have gone through both processes. They work together and take a good photo to a great photo. Understanding this will help you communicate effectively with your graphic designer or editing company. When you are taking photos to sell products, capture memories, or market a property, the quality of your photos matters. They are usually the first thing that people will see, and they create lasting impressions.
So, don’t let poor quality affect your image results. Ready to upgrade your images? The investment in hiring a specialist will make sure your images look stunning. Contact us at UK Clipping Path for a free quote and examples of how our photo editing and retouching services can help elevate your brand.
FAQs
- Why do I need professional photo editing for my online store?
You need this because you need good images for your brand. Professional photo editing makes your brand look trustworthy. Good product images make your product look good and make customers buy it.
- Can you remove the background of any photo?
Yes! It can easily be removed by an expert. Services like clipping path carefully cut out the main subject to remove the distracting background. This is perfect for product websites, for a clean and professional presentation.
- How much do photo editing services cost?
The cost depends on what you are looking for. For example, color correction is quite affordable. But, if you are looking for retouching, like removing multiple objects from a photo, it will cost more., The more involved the retouching is, the more it will cost. Most companies provide a quote based on your photo.
- Is photo retouching and just applying a filter the same thing?
No, they aren’t even close. A filter is an automatic effect that is applied to a photo, and the entire photo is affected. Retouching is a manual process that an expert editor has control over. It ends with an image being dissected and improved in small, specific parts of an image to produce perfection.
- How long does it take to get my photos back?
It depends on the work, specific requirements, and workload. When you simply edit a few simple videos or photos, you may have it back in as little as 24 hours. When it is 200 photos, with extensive retouching of each, it may take a few days.
- What is the biggest difference between photo editing and photo retouching?
Photo editing corrects the image as a whole, for instance brightness of the image, and the general color. Photo retouching is particular to small details, such as removing a dent or smoothing skin. You can think of photo editing as the base and retouching as the details.
