The complete guide to photo retouching for e-commerce

The best e-commerce brands in the world share one common trait—great product photography. There’s a good reason for that. Converting traffic to sales has a lot to do with first impressions and the buyer’s ability to investigate products before they can buy. That starts with great product photos. 

But it’s almost impossible to get the perfect photo, for every possible use case and scenario, on the first shot. Inevitably, you’re going to need to make alterations to images.  Photo retouching, in these scenarios, is your friend.

Want to create product photos that boost sales? This guide will show you simple retouching techniques to make your e-commerce products stand out.

What is photo retouching?

Photo retouching is the act of editing or manipulating a digital image to either improve it visually, or adjust its technical qualities (or both).

Basic photo retouching can include actions like: 

• Re-sizing

• Color correction

• Cropping 

• Shape adjustments

• Defect or object removal

Historically, photo retouching has been done through manual desktop applications that require steep learning curves and expertise to operate. Today, there are a host of AI photo retouching apps—like Photoroom—that both broaden the possibilities for photo retouching, and simplify the process. 

Why retouching matters for e-commerce 

As we’ve noted, great product photos are critical in e-commerce. In fact, 90% of shoppers are influenced by product visuals when making purchases—the single biggest motivating factor in their online buying journey. 

But, while photos are incredibly important, they can also be incredibly time consuming and costly to create, edit, and re-purpose for all potential e-commerce use cases. 

Photo retouching can help you improve e-commerce product images, ensuring that the photos you do have look professional, polished, and aligned with your brand, boosting perceived product value and helping customers envision items in real life. It also minimizes returns and complaints by offering an accurate visual representation of the product. 

By enhancing existing photos, retouching saves time and effort while meeting marketplace requirements—making it a key investment for scaling e-commerce success.

5 things to know before retouching product photos

Before we jump into some tools to retouch product photos, let’s look at a few best practices.

Here are five tips to make your photo retouching successful: 

• Start with high-quality images. Retouching works best when the original photos are clear and well-lit. Low-resolution, blurry, or pixelated images can be difficult to fix, and in many cases, may require a reshoot.

• Lighting and exposure matter. If your images are too dark or overexposed, retouching may only offer limited improvements. Aim to capture photos in natural or consistent lighting to reduce post-production challenges.

• Simple backgrounds are key. The more complex or “busy” a background is, the harder it will be to clean up or remove unwanted objects. Shooting against a plain background makes retouching faster and more effective.

• Be realistic about object removal. Removing unwanted items is easier when they’re surrounded by solid, uniform areas. Heavy clutter or uneven shadows can complicate the process and affect the final result.

• Not every image needs to be perfect. Tools like Photoroom can handle common issues, such as removing messy backgrounds or enhancing focus, giving you flexibility to improve even less-than-ideal shots.

There are lots of tools for retouching product photos, ranging from the basic to the extremely advanced. Below, we’ll highlight one feature in Photoroom that allows you to retouch e-commerce photos in a matter of seconds. 

Step-by-step photo retouching process using Photoroom

Photoroom’s AI Retouch tool allows you to quickly and easily remove unwanted objects, people, or watermarks from your images in just a matter of seconds.

1. Upload your image to Photoroom

To get started, open the Photoroom app on your mobile device or access the web version on your desktop. Once inside:

• Select “+ Start from Photo” to upload an image from your device, or take a new photo using your phone’s camera.

• Alternatively, you can directly access the AI Retouch tool by selecting it from the main menu.

2. Select the retouch tool 

Once your image is uploaded, navigate to the Magic Retouch tool.

• Use the brush size slider to adjust the size of the brush depending on the level of detail needed.

• For larger objects, use a bigger brush. For precise edits, switch to a smaller brush for more control.

3. Highlight the unwanted objects

With your brush selected, hold your finger on the screen and “paint” over the object you want to remove. A highlighted area will appear, showing exactly what you’re erasing.

• Don’t worry if you miss a spot! You can repeat the process or fine-tune the retouching as needed.

4. Let AI work its magic 

Release your finger once you’ve covered the unwanted area. Photoroom’s AI will automatically remove the object and seamlessly blend the background, making it appear as if the object was never there.

If any parts of the object remain, go over the area again until the image looks clean.

5. Final touches and enhancements

After retouching, you can make additional edits to enhance your image:

• Add shadows using the Instant Shadows tool to give products depth.

• Replace or refine backgrounds using the Background Remover or Instant Background options. You can even create entirely new ones using AI Backgrounds.

• Resize the image to fit specific e-commerce platform requirements using the Image Resizer tool.

• Apply filters or brightness adjustments to improve lighting and contrast.

• Expand the borders of your image and repurpose it for different platforms using AI Expand.

• Improve image quality by enhancing the resolution of your photos with AI Upscale and Photo Enhancer.

Curious about optimizing the backgrounds for your product photos? Read our guide on product photography backgrounds. 

6. Save and share

Once you’re happy with your edits, tap the “Share” icon to export the image.

Save it to your device or share it directly on your website or social media channels.

Tips for achieving professional results from photo retouching 

Picking the right AI photo retouching tool, while important, is only half the battle. You still need to follow some general guidelines to get the best results from your efforts. 

Here are five: 

• Prioritize consistency to create a cohesive, professional look across product listings. Consistent lighting, angles, and background styles help establish brand recognition and make your store visually appealing.

• Use retouching to highlight product features like textures, colors, and unique details. Subtle enhancements, like sharpening edges or boosting contrast, can draw attention to what makes your product stand out.

• Avoid over-retouching to maintain authenticity. While perfecting every detail may be tempting, excessive edits can make images look unrealistic and risk misrepresenting the product.

• Test images across different devices to ensure they appear clear and vibrant on both desktop and mobile screens, accommodating various online shopping behaviors.

• Align images with platform guidelines, as different e-commerce marketplaces have specific requirements for size, resolution, and backgrounds. Meeting these specifications ensures a seamless listing process.

With the right techniques, photo retouching can turn ordinary images into professional assets that attract customers and improve conversion rates across your online store.

Try Photoroom for photo retouching today 

Retouching e-commerce product photos doesn’t need to be time-consuming or frustrating. With Photoroom, you can dramatically speed up the process, and rapidly retouch and alter images as you need them. No more time-consuming editing sessions, and no more relying on outdated or poor-quality product images. 

Try Photoroom for yourself today. It’s accessible on both mobile devices and desktop and can be downloaded from the App Store, the Google Play Store, or by navigating to the Photoroom website. Set up your account in less than a minute, and start saving hours for more important tasks.